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Age problem
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 8:06 pm
by markwhale46
Having a problem tying the ages of some individuals between census records
Could a family census still be links to the next census even if some of the ages are incorrect?
How accurate was this information?
Re: Age problem
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:18 pm
by gardener
Hi Markwhale
Ages could be way off!
The 1841 census was supposed to have ages above 15 rounded down to the nearest 5 years eg 29 would be rounded down to 25. Not everyone did this so some are entered at real age - and occasionally you find them rounded up to nearest 5!
On the other census then the ages should be as given but often people did not know their ages so just had a guess, that depends on their status in life a bit too.
Then again some just lied. If married to a much younger or older person then ages were often fiddled to look better. Or a girl married underage by lying and appears older in the next census but correctly in the following one.
If they agree at all then you just smile and doa jig, otherwise go by all the evidence you have.
Re: Age problem
Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:56 pm
by MarkCDodd
Census ages vary for all the reasons gardener has mentioned.
Do not be overly concerned about their place of birth either.
Re: Age problem
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:36 am
by Antie Em
Couldn't agree more with Gardener and Mark - just to confuse matters even more - some people said they were married when they weren't
Re: Age problem
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 11:13 am
by snoopysue
MarkCDodd wrote:Census ages vary for all the reasons gardener has mentioned.
Do not be overly concerned about their place of birth either.
I got quite a few who have the place of birth incorrect, either it's the same as the head of household, or it's where they were living at the time of the census. Another variant is if they were born in a suburb of a larger town, or a small town close to a larger town, then it sometimes switches between the two. Also if the county borders were changed , some people put down the correct county for the time of the census, others put down the county as it was at the time of birth.
Sometimes even the spelling of names was way out!! (Not to mention transcription errors!).
If everything else matches up, family members, relative ages (that child a is always older than child b), proffessions, maybe addresses then as others have said go by that.
Re: Age problem
Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:07 pm
by markwhale46
Thank you for your reply folks. As much as I love this new hobby of researching my past relations, I am often found with head in hands and wishing for a time machine lol. But I am so pleased that I have have discovered this site and have been amazed at how helpful you all have been. What would I do without you lot!
Thanks Again.