thanks -- just typing my facts worked.....

daj · Post by **daj** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:41 pm

Rewind about one hour and I was typing a message asking if you could offer an extra pair of eyes (or a few hundred). I had been staring at a dead end in my tree for a few days.

I had a branch of siblings around the early 1800's and I was getting nowhere with one of them. His name was Joseph which is a name never having appeared in the tree before so I thought it would be simple to find him. Indeed he appears as being born in 1819 with the correct parents. But could I find a marriage, children or a death for him....no! I had found two Josephs' but the dates were several years out.

Days of searching lead to nothing.

So I was typing all the details up for the forum when it hit me... I had not checked the Census details.. I found that they both appeared in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 Census's. Ok, they were the wrong age for my Joseph but it did mean I could consult the new Statutory Records from 1855 onwards, which have much more detail.

Ta Da -- there was the death of my Joseph, with his parents listed as expected, and all these years he had been fibbing about his age by between 3 and 5 years depending on which census you check.

So thank you one and all -- I know you never got to see my epic list of investigation details, but typing it all up made me realise I had missed checking one detail.

me happy now!

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 9:52 pm

Hi David

So thank you one and all -- I know you never got to see my epic list of investigation details, but typing it all up made me realise I had missed checking one detail.

You are certainly not the first to find that putting your thoughts in order to make a post helps you find the answer all by yourself!! I know I've done it, and I'm sure a few years back we had a post on the very subject! I guess it is one of the hidden benefits of forum membership

Anyway, I'm very glad that you were able to make some progress. It is always more satisfying and exciting when you make the discoveries yourself

Best wishes
Lesley

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 8:22 am

David.......

I think that I read some time ago, when I was similarly perplexed by different ages appearing on the records that did not exactly tally up when the next record was found, that in the early censuses the ages were often rounded up or down to the nearest 30,35,40,45 50,55, 60,65 etc.

My hunch is that the older you were there was more chance of that happening as a combination of ease and perhaps also as a poor information given to the census taker.

Perhaps someone else on the forum can confirm that the census information in the early censuses was taken by a visit from the census taker to the household, not like today when the form if filled in by the head of houselhold?

Also the ability to do even simple maths could not be relied upon, so errors crept in for other reasons, especially when there are many children in a household.

Puffin

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:08 am

Hi Puffin

I think that I read some time ago, when I was similarly perplexed by different ages appearing on the records that did not exactly tally up when the next record was found, that in the early censuses the ages were often rounded up or down to the nearest 30,35,40,45 50,55, 60,65 etc.

In the 1841 census ages were supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5. In any later census this is not the case - doesn't stop ages being given o noted wrongly though!!

See http://www.talkingscot.com/censuses/census-1841.htm for a summary of the 1841 census procedure.

Best wishes
Lesley

Post by **AndrewP** » Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:12 am

puffin wrote:Perhaps someone else on the forum can confirm that the census information in the early censuses was taken by a visit from the census taker to the household, not like today when the form if filled in by the head of houselhold?

Hi Puffin,

All of the censuses from 1851 specifically say in the Enumerators' instructions that he should copy the information from the househloders' schedules into the enumeration book. The 1841 instructions are not clear about this point. From 1851, you see on the census pages, the schedule number in the leftmost column. That refers to the householder's schedule. That column is not on the 1841 census pages.

All the best,

AndrewP

TalkingScot.com