Searching the 1861 census
From the census records, I now know the name of my great great grandfather, the Christian name of his wife, where they were living in 1871 and the ages of at least some of their children. I would like to find out when they got married so I really need to go back another 10 years to see if they were already married then.
I can find my great great grandfather in the 1861 census and he is in London, as he was in the later census but I get the first indication of how he came to move from his place of birth in Buckinghamshire to the metropolis.
In 1861 he is not married but living in Hammersmith as a live- in servant, at least that is how his relationship to the head of household is described. His occupation is given as a Baker, as is the head of household. So it certainly looks as though he is working for a baker and being given board and lodgings as part of his wages.
What is very interesting is that the wife of the baker also comes from Buckinghamshire, though the baker himself hails from Hampstead, then in Middlesex now North London.
From these 1861 census records, I now know that he was married sometime between 1861 and the birth of his first child recorded on the 1871 census, and I am beginning to get a story about how he came to London!
Another 10 years back, looking at the 1851 census may reveal more information.