1851 Census - Rutherford

[Pandabean]

Hey all,

Just taking a quick gander at my Rutherford line which was prompted by a PM.
On the 1851 census I have an Andrew Rutherford who appears to be seperate from his family living in Larbert, Stirlingshire. Andrew is a blacksmith and is in the Gorbals in 1851. Im wondering what the place was where he was staying as there are numerous other people there and there are a lot of ticks in the Deaf,Dumb,Blind box, Andrew included.

Its 65 Main Street, Gorbals and seems to have a Wife, I havent checked tha page before to see what the husband's occupation was, but all the lodgers seem to have a tick.

There are 6 lodgers in total, and their occupations are 3 stone masons, 1 blacksmith, 1 stone cutter and 1 House Servant.


Is this likely to be some kind of house for people with problems or could it be a building project?

[Currie]

Hello Andy,

The only reference to the address I can find in the newspapers is in the Glasgow Herald, Monday, February 19, 1849. At the Theatre Royal in Dunlop Street, a young lad named Archibald Doyle, aged 17, of 65, Main Street, Gorbals, was one of sixty five people who were trampled to death in a panicked rush to the exits caused by a small fire that had already been extinguished.

Alan

[SarahND]

Hi Andy,
The head of the household is Hugh Hannah, 48, a Pensioner born Ireland. His wife Ann is a Washerwoman also born Ireland and they have 4 children. The oldest, John Hannah, 16, was born N. America, and the others were born Glasgow. Was Ann the "wife" on the page you have?

I am only looking at a transcription so I can't see if Hugh also has the box ticked. There is no indication on the transcription if the house is special in any other way. Maybe someone with more local knowledge will have the answer.

Alan, that story is horrible... crowd behavior is certainly not a new thing. I knew I was right to live in the middle of nowhere

Regards,
Sarah

[AndrewP]

Hi Andy,

I took a look at that census page and the one after. All the people ticked (on both pages) in the Blind, or Deaf and Dumb column were born outside Glasgow. All of the Glasgow-born ones are not ticked. I think these ticks are nothing to do with the person being blind or deaf and dumb, but were made when the enumerator was collating the summary information for the front few pages of the book, in the same way that the ages are scored through.

So I don't believe that there is any family, household, building or street mystery to try and resolve.

All ther best,

AndrewP

[emanday]

Also, weren't they supposed to indicate with words, rather than just a tick?

All the ones I've seen had such as just "blind" or even "blind from birth", "deaf & dumb".

The point of a census is to create statistics. I don't think a "blanket tick" in that box would have been much help in that respect.