All Gidleys found on the 1921 census have now been added to the entries on the Gidley family history website
The Gidley One Name Study (one-name.net)
It is an important census, being the last mass database for England and Wales until the release of the 1951 census. The 1931 census was destroyed in a fire and there was no census taken in 1941.
I haven't done a detailed analysis yet, but I was struck by the number of men described as unemployed or out of work, which is something that hasn't appeared in previous censuses. The slump seems to have affected all areas of work from manufacturing to forestry. It was sad to see whole families with no income, and some families who had to move back to live with relatives.
Memorandum from the Ministry of Labour,12 August 1921
(TNA Catalogue ref: CAB 24/127)
If we look upon the industrial events of the last nine or tenth months, with the heavy trade depression that set in last autumn and the prolonged struggle with the miners, culminating in the unprecedented unemployment figures of June, the almost complete absence of civil disorder is remarkable. During June, the Employment Exchanges were paying Benefit to over three millions of wholly or partially unemployed workers and in addition over a million miners, ineligible for Benefit, were idle. In fact, if account is taken of the short time workers who could not qualify for Benefit, it is probably true to say that in June not more than one out of every two industrial workers in the country, for a working population of over 12 millions (excluding Agriculture and Domestic Service) was engaged in whole-time employment.
I have added to the tree a few people I have discovered are now no longer with us, a few who temporarily had the Gidley surname but no longer used it in the 1939 Register, and a new family who took the surname from a stepfather.
I discovered hundreds of errors in the transcriptions of entries, They were carried out under tight restrictions, so they are understandable, but one day I reported 48 errors to FindMyPast. Removed were those transcribed as Gidley but who were actually Gridley (understandable) and those who were transcribed as Gidley because the entry on the line above had the surname Gidley (not so understandable). Also removed were Gidney, Tidley and Quidley. The worst error I noticed in the places of birth was one for my Great Aunt Bessie Gidley who was transcribed as being born in Scotland, Ayrshire, when it was actually Swindon, Wiltshire. There is still some tidying up to do so that people can find their ancestors on FindMyPast.
