Census gives insight into lives of Ripper victims

Census records have shed new light on the victims of one of Britain's most infamous serial killers - Jack the Ripper.

After more than a century of speculation, rumour and legend about the killer, historians have ploughed through census records to gain insight into the lives of the women he targeted.

Studies of the 1881 census have shown that far from being the young, lifelong prostitutes that modern cinema has them portrayed, the victims were often older and married with children.

Two of Jack the Ripper's victims, Elizabeth Stride, who was 37, and Catherine Eddowes, 38, are recorded in the 1881 census as married and living with their husbands seven years prior to their deaths, while 40-year-old Annie Chapman was residing with her parents before relocating to be with her husband, a stud groom, in Berkshire.

According to newspaper reports when they were murdered in 1888, none of the victims were living with their husbands at the time of their deaths.

It is thought they may have turned to prostitution after their marriages broke up.

The census confirmed the only victim who was in her 20s at the time of death was Mary Jane Kelly.

The first and last of the so-called "Canonical five" victims, Mary Ann "Polly" Nichols and Mary Jane Kelly, are not found in the 1881 census and may well have been street walking on the night the census was taken.

The research was carried out by findmypast.com which, from today, has made available scanned images of the 1881 census to view online.

Debra Chatfield, marketing manager at findmypast.com, said: "The 1881 census records give us a small window onto the past to help us shed new light on the lives of people of historical interest, as well as to build up a picture of our own ancestors' lives."

The 1881 census took a snapshot of the lives of the 29 million people living in England and Wales on the night of April 3, 1881.

Each census record includes the name, age, address, occupation and relationship to the head of household of every citizen.