Hello Gerry You ask about col 16??? there are only 12 colums in the 1861 census - but the last column (12) is the one that states Blind, Deaf etc. (the same as column 17 in the 1891 census) The "dwarf" was actually shown in the occupation column. That column is sometimes used by enumerators for comments other than occupation - e,g " twin" " wife's son" etc etc so Dwarf may just be a description , or in a very small number of cases could actually be an occupation if someone works in a circus or a fair etc. However in this case as she always seemed to be at home with her family and in 1861 is 39 I would guess this is just a description. I was intrigued as I had found no mention in any other census against her name and wondered how I could find out if she really was a dwarf or not. Cheers Pat In message <BE0A09DC.9F9E%gerry@asterisk.co.uk>, Gerry <gerry@asterisk.co.uk> writes >on 11/1/05 5:04 pm, Pat Powell at pat@pcubed.demon.co.uk wrote: > >> Greetings! >> >> I wonder if anyone has any ideas for me to follow. >> >> I was tracking a family (surname BEYNON) through each census and in the >> 1861 census one of the daaughter is shown as >> >> Sophia Beynon dau U 39 dwarf CMN Llandissilio >> >> the "dwarf" comment does not occur in any of the other census entries >> that I have seen. >> >> Any idea how I could find out more? >> >> Cheers >> >> Pat > >Hello Pat > >Was this in column 16? Enumerators sometimes used this column for physical >problems other than those listed (which were deaf, blind or lunatic). > >I have not come across this description in my transcribing of the 1891 >census of PEM. > >Gerry Lewis > >______________________________ >on 11/1/05 5:04 pm, Pat Powell at pat@pcubed.demon.co.uk wrote: > >> Greetings! >> >> I wonder if anyone has any ideas for me to follow. >> >> I was tracking a family (surname BEYNON) through each census and in the >> 1861 census one of the daaughter is shown as >> >> Sophia Beynon dau U 39 dwarf CMN Llandissilio >> >> the "dwarf" comment does not occur in any of the other census entries >> that I have seen. >> >> Any idea how I could find out more? >> >> Cheers >> >> Pat -- Pat Powell