1911 Census - Initial Overview of the Kerr (& Shaw) Islanders

I thought that on this, the day that sees the release of the 1911 Census on ScotlandsPeople , I would begin by looking at some overall figures:

KERR DATA & (VERY!) BRIEF ANALYSIS

HARRIS 4849 people, 2238 Male, 2611 Female ie 53.8% female, 46.2% male

Harris 15 Male 5 Female 10

Harris – decreased from 18 (9 of each gender) to 15 ie by nearly 17%

There were 6 Kerr births between 1901 & 1911 inclusive & 6 deaths.

Further examination is required to explain the decrease.

LEWIS

Stornoway 17 Male 9 Female 8

Lochs 17 Male 9 Female 8

Lewis Total 34 Male 18 Female 16

Stornoway – increased from 11(6 male & 5 female) to 17 ie by over 50%

There were 3 Kerr births between 1901 & 1911 inclusive & 3 deaths.

Further examination is required to explain the increase.

Lewis – increased by 13 from 21 ie by 62%

(inc the Lochs population which increased from 9 to 17 ie by nearly 90%)

INVERNESS-SHIRE 59 – 27 M, 32 F

Inverness-shire – decreased by 1 from 60 ie under 2%

ROSS & CROMARTY 26 – 13 M, 13 F

Ross-shire – decreased by 11 from 37 ie by 30%

ARGYLL – increased by 7 from 196 ie by 4%.

SUTHERLAND – decreased by 17 from 159 ie by 11%

SHAW OVERVIEW

HARRIS – 61, 26 Male, 35 Female – decreased by 19 from 80 ie by 25%.

There were 11 Shaw births between 1901 & 1911 inclusive & 11 deaths.

Further examination is required to explain the increase.

LEWIS – 3, decrease by 5 from 8ie since by 68%

3 in each of Lochs & Stornoway, in 1901 these figures were 0 and 8 respectively.

Between 1901 & 1911 inclusive, 1 Shaw was born in Stornoway & 1 in Lochs & 1 died in Stornoway & 1 in Lochs.

Further examination is required to explain the overall decrease.

SUMMARY

It was pretty surprising that in each set that I have examined, the births & deaths balanced each-other out hence the observed changes must be due to the movement of people.

However, the figure that stands-out the loudest to me is that by 1911 there were only 5 males called Kerr left living on Harris.

Of these, the youngest was 9 and he was the only boy aged 0-14, 2 were aged 15-29, none were 30-44, 1 was 45-64 & the oldest was 68.

As for the 10 remaining females, the youngest was 16 and she was one of only 3 aged 15-29, 1 was aged 30-44, 2 were 45-64, 2 were 65-79 and the eldest pair were 80 and 82 years old.

Within a little over 60 years since my great, great grandfather Malcolm Kerr had first emigrated to Lewis (He considered his 'Nationality' to be 'Harris'!), there were for the first time more people in Stornoway bearing the name Kerr (his descendants) than Kerrs left living on Harris...