Census deviants!

This section is for those who are completely new to genealogy and would like to dip their toe in the gene pool!

Moderators: admin, Northern Lass, peterd

Census deviants!

Postby jo. » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:37 pm

What sort of deviants can one expect between censuses?

I know spelling can alter slightly, more so in the earlier ones..

But how about age!

As I found who I was looking for in the 1911 census, everything here tallied up..

So moved onto the 1901 census...

The parents name matches, so does their ages and other details such as place of birth..

However the son Robert that I was expecting to find there, was identical apart from age... In the 1911 census he's apparently 10 years old, on the 1901 census he's listed as being 3 1/2...

Just had a thought, could this 31/2 actually be his months in age rather than years!
jo.
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:18 am

Re: Census deviants!

Postby peterd » Thu Sep 27, 2012 6:58 pm

might be 3 and half weeks cant say with out seeing census

all census should tally up for age but most are a few years out

1841 age rounded down to nearest 5 ie 29 becomes 25 years
A person should have an opinion on everything, It becomes tact whether you reveal that opinion or not.

http://www.deneview.co.uk/
peterd
 
Posts: 15566
Joined: Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:33 am
Location: co durham

Re: Census deviants!

Postby gardener » Thu Sep 27, 2012 9:19 pm

Ages can vary quite a lot when the parents were not too good at maths.
And then the census can be incorrectly filled in. My grandfather is clearly marked as aged 11 in the 1901 census but he was actually 11 months. :-)
It could well be 3/12 in your case. If you want to post the details someone will have a look I'm sure.
"The present is the key to the past" - Charles Lyell
User avatar
gardener
 
Posts: 3223
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:49 pm
Location: Iceland

Re: Census deviants!

Postby SRD » Fri Sep 28, 2012 7:55 am

It's not unusual for dates to vary, sometimes it's down to poor transcriptions on behalf of the census taker who was filling in the forms from working from poorly written notes taken in the field. If you are working from the transcribed records on some web sites there can be errors in those transcriptions, I've seen 3s transcribed as 8s, 1s or 2s as 7s, and vice versa.
I've had a number whose age has changed once their partner has died :roll: and some where only the age on the gravestone was accurate. It may have been deliberate or accidental.

Similar things can occur regarding birth places. Parents usually know where their kids were born but the kids themselves may think the first place they remember was their birthplace when actually their parents moved whilst they were infants. And again mistranscriptions can occur, either by local census takers not knowing about other counties or countries or by the websites that publish the transcriptions; Ancestry is great at putting West Grimstead (in Wiltshire) instead of West Grinstead (in Sussex).
Currently investigating the Hillmans of Sussex.
User avatar
SRD
 
Posts: 2441
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: Wiltshire

Re: Census deviants!

Postby jo. » Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:24 am

I've taken another look at the actual census, rather than just relying on the transcript and it's my second thought a Months' rather than years!

The information tallied up so much, and if a bit of family gossip is true, then ties in and makes a lot of sense..

On the 1871 census, again I'm faced with the location from 'where from' but positive it's them, slight difference in in place of birth but saying that, both villages are next to each other, so probably a case of where village boundary lines are considered to be!
jo.
 
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Sep 23, 2012 7:18 am

Re: Census deviants!

Postby snoopysue » Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:32 pm

jo. wrote:I've taken another look at the actual census, rather than just relying on the transcript and it's my second thought a Months' rather than years!

The information tallied up so much, and if a bit of family gossip is true, then ties in and makes a lot of sense..

On the 1871 census, again I'm faced with the location from 'where from' but positive it's them, slight difference in in place of birth but saying that, both villages are next to each other, so probably a case of where village boundary lines are considered to be!


As far as place goes, it can vary from census to census, not just switching between neighbouring villages, but also between counties. Sometimes that's due to moving boundary lines - some people put down the county that the town was in at the time of the census, others the county the town was in when they were born!
Snoopysue

Logic merely enables one to be wrong with authority.
User avatar
snoopysue
 
Posts: 3947
Joined: Thu May 20, 2010 6:12 pm
Location: Denmark

Re: Census deviants!

Postby Antie Em » Fri Sep 28, 2012 8:27 pm

jo. wrote:What sort of deviants can one expect between censuses?

I know spelling can alter slightly, more so in the earlier ones..

But how about age!

As I found who I was looking for in the 1911 census, everything here tallied up..

So moved onto the 1901 census...

The parents name matches, so does their ages and other details such as place of birth..

However the son Robert that I was expecting to find there, was identical apart from age... In the 1911 census he's apparently 10 years old, on the 1901 census he's listed as being 3 1/2...

Just had a thought, could this 31/2 actually be his months in age rather than years!


I've seen this before, it meant a third of a year (four months)
There's no place like home ......
User avatar
Antie Em
 
Posts: 4309
Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2010 5:17 am


Return to Beginners Section

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests