Searching the 1841 census
There is something compulsive about tracking back through a family and as there is still one more census available to search, it will have to be searched.
1841 was the first modern census in the England, in that it recorded everyone by name, age, sex, occupation (of the head of household only) as well as some details of place of birth. Place of birth is given as whether born in England and if so, whether in the same county as resident on census night. If not born in England, then if born in Scotland, Ireland or Foreign Parts. (Previous censuses were simply a head count without identifying individuals.)
I can again find my gg grandfather and as he now only 9 years old is still at home with his family in Chalfont St Giles. However, the 1841 census does not give a vital piece of information that later censuses do, that is the relationship of individuals within the household to eachother. Job Lane is given as being 55 and Mary Lane as 60. Presumably they are husband and wife. There are four other Lanes, three males of 30, 18 and 9 years of age and one female who is 20. So either Mary had a son when she was 51 which is just possible but somewhat unlikely. Possibly this youngest Lane is a grandson or perhaps a nephew from another part of the family. Without further information one can only speculate.
One usual bit of information though that I can find is that the family were farmers. Job is given as a farmer and the name of the farm is given. This will make looking for details of the birth of my gg grandfather easier.
It is also somewhat gratifying to have got back one century further. Job and Mary were born in the 1780s, when the Industrial Revolution was still in its infancy, George III had been King for 20 Years (and still had another 40 to reign). significantly for family historians, 1780 is the start of Pallot's Marriage Index which recorded almost all marriages within the old City of London (only two out of 103 parishes are missing), from much of Middlesex as well as a limited number of entries from many other counties in England and a few in Wales. The index includes entries up until the start of general registration in 1837.