Lanarkshire in the 1881 Census

Explore Victorian Lanarkshire using Find My Past’s full database of records from the 1881 Census. Uncover the lives of your Lanarkshire ancestors in these historical records of the county during the late 19th Century.

Taken on the 3rd April 1881, the census collected the following information from Lanarkshire: full name, exact age, relationship to head of household, gender, occupation, parish and county of birth, medical disabilities.

There were more than 940,000 residents living in Lanarkshire on the day of the census; with nearly 30 million living in the UK. Queen Victoria was the reigning monarch, while William Gladstone was the Prime Minister.

The United Kingdom was highly urbanised at this time, with two-thirds of the country living in cities. Indeed, the textile, shipbuilding and metal working industries were all thriving in the region in 1881.

Lanarkshire was a jewel in the crown of Britain in this period, its major city Glasgow was known as the “second city of the Empire.”

Despite previous cholera epidemics and problems with poverty earlier in the 19th century, Glasgow had made improvements to significantly cut back death rates.

The Loch Katrine Scheme, opened by Queen Victoria in 1859, meant Glasgow drew its water from the Trossachs and paved the way for slum clearance, gas supply, public lighting, tramways, museums, libraries, art galleries and parks.

The fall in the price of basic foods in the 1870s and the improvement of milk supplies, free school meals, and the widening influences of nurses and midwives also helped matters for your ancestors in Lanarkshire.

Findmypast’s database has in-depth records from Lanarkshire in 1881 so you can uncover your family secrets with ease.

To search the census returns, just input the information you have about your relatives into our search form and hit search.

With options to search by name, location, birth place, birth year, location and more, filtering out the millions of residents of Lanarkshire is simple.

For example, if you have a long-lost family member with the surname Campbell who you know lived in the county, just enter Campbell in the “Last name” field and Lanarkshire in the “County” field and you’ll get these search results

Using the transcripts of the census provided, members can then inspect the original images of the census enumeration books, which will help validate findings and expand family trees.

Alongside your ancestors, you may find historically significant figures living among them.

Perhaps one of your relatives was one of two servants living with Thomas Lipton - founder of Lipton teas? He had already set up several shops in Glasgow and soon would expand to Dundee, Edinburgh, Paisley and Leeds.

Andrew Bonar Law can also be found as a 22-year- old Iron Merchants Clerk. From these inauspicious beginnings, the man born in Canada would become the first person born outside of the British Isles to become Prime Minister.

The original documents will have been given to your ancestors some time in advance before collection on April 3rd.

As illiteracy was still common, third party “enumerators” will have written on many people’s behalf, which could lead to some errors in the transcripts. This makes it of vital importance to check the original images.

Beware other inaccuracies such as wrong birth dates. Our search function allows a margin of error of two years, you can adjust this further if you wish.

There are more than 940,000 Lanarkshire residents in the 1881 Census, so what are you waiting for? Dig in to our records to see the family members who did amazing things in this unique period in history!