A new feature which is unique to this website, where you can search for your family members here in Gornal that were entered in the 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 Census.

You do NOT need to register, pay or any of that stuff - just search.
This search facility is NOT linked to any external resources.

1901: Lower Gornal Parish, over 7000 individuals.
**1901: Upper Gornal Parish, mostly complete (3600+ individuals).
This Census was taken on the night of Sunday 31st March, 1901.

1891: Within the Lower Gornal Parish, over 6500 individuals were entered into the Census which took place on the night of Sunday 5th April, 1891.
The searchable database covers the entire Parish of St. James', Lower Gornal, and most of St. Peters, Upper Gornal, plus families from All Saints (Sedgley) where appropriate, in all another 4,400 individuals.

1881: Lower Gornal Parish, 5900+ individuals.
Census taken on the night of Sunday 3rd April, 1881.
Does not cover Upper Gornal at this time.

1871: Lower Gornal Parish.
Recently Completed, 6145 individuals.
The Census was taken on Sunday 2 April, 1871.
Very limited coverage of Upper Gornal, Ruiton currently being added).

You are able to search for your family name or person who lived in Gornal at that time; their siblings; who lived with them; what address they lived at and what they did for a living, and also any other information that was recorded about them in these Census.

Plus some unique features you will only find at "lowergornal.co.uk", where details of families and individual persons may be included.
This includes hundreds of marriage details.
Because of local knowledge, this is one of the most accurate resources for the area and time covered.

Please Note: This search is limited to families living here in Gornal in the 1871, 1881, 1891 or 1901 Census, and persons elegible to vote in 1915.

People from Gornal who were living OUTSIDE of the area at this time are not included.
The surname must be included in the search criteria, a forename is optional.

Results of a name search will show all likely matches and their families.
The individual family details can be expanded to examin all information about this family and any additional information available which in some cases may include marriage, baptism, burial and other information.
1871 ~ 1901, the house/property can be cross-referenced to that in the opposing Census, to see if the same family lived at that address before or later.

Notes on searching the database, and the results you may get...

Much of the data has been entered into the database verbatim - that is as it was written on the Census Sheet. Some names from 130 odd years ago may not be presented as you expect.
Census entries of names and other facts were not always noted correctly or the writing is partly illegible making accurate transcription difficult.

Surnames: Some familiar names had different spelling, some at the whim of the enumerator, example:- Beadsmore/Beardsmore; Flavel/Flavell; Brooks/Brookes etc. Take into account that many folk would not have been able to write their own name so may have been arbitary entries, examples around this time include the many occurances where wedding certificate signatures were recorded as a 'mark' e.g. 'X'.

Forenames: It is obvious that there were many familiar first names in this Census, but the way they were written may have changed over time, examples:- Ann/Anne/Annie; Pamela/Pemula/Pamula; Elizabeth/Eliza/Lizzie; Phoebe/Phobe/Phebe, and so on.

The search routine only has limited pattern matching, so check for alternative spellings.

Ages will be that given at time of Census (April) and depend on the accuracy of data and transcription.
The 'Date of Birth' (DOB) is automatically generated from the age of the individual, so is not entirely accurate, allow at least plus/minus 1 year.

Results of a name search will show verbatim transcriptions from original Census documents, this may occasionally show some unusual spellings, but keep in mind that these often were just errors created by the enumerator.
Any part of the record enclosed within square brackets thus [ xxx ] is additional information not transcribed from the Census document and has been added to the database for clarification and/or extra information.

Place of Birth (POB): Sometimes vaguely entered, but often was quite specific, POB given as 'Sedgley' could relate to Sedgley itself or anywhere in the Sedgley district, but in many cases it still refers to Gornal.

Check the original Census document(s) if you suspect inaccurate or inconclusive results. Original documents are NOT available on this site. However, I may be able to help if you can provide the reference indicated, please ask.

1915 Electoral Roll.
The information this contains is very limited, only those on the electoral roll (elegible to vote at the time) are included along with their address.

UPPER GORNAL & DISTRICT
This area is not presently included in 1871 and 1881.
Most of Upper Gornal is included in the database where available, some parts under St Peters Parish and not in the immediate area of the Gornals are not included.
The Upper Gornal database also includes households from Moden Hill, Cotwall End, The Straits, Straits Green and part of Dudley Road which are in Sedgley All Saints Parish.
Part of Club Row is missing from the original 1891 documents, they were damaged and are probably lost for all time, in all about 10 families from Club Row are missing from this Census.

Further records or additional notes may be added as time and interest allows.