Census 1841 - Kerr Family

[Aliballibee]

Evening all

My first real post to the forum after the "where did you find us?" thread.

I have Parish Birth records for Forfar that indicate that by 1841 my relative William Kerr and his wife Christina Clark had two children:

Agnes - born 30th March 1838
Charles - born 4th August 1839

A check of the 1841 census and Forfar district only provides 1 William Kerr who seems to be married to Mary Kerr.

A separate search for Agnes Kerr turned up a 2 year old in Dunblane but she seems to be on her own - the family above her on the census have a different name.

A separate search for Charles doesn't find anyone in the Forfar area at all.

I'm new to census checking and this seems a little confusing. I'm presuming I'm making a mistake somewhere but not sure why the search isn't bringing up my relatives.

I'd appreciate any comments on what I may (or may not) be doing wrong.

Kind regards

Alan

[carlineric]

It looks like the surname has been indexed as "Karr" on FreeCen, Ancestry and ScotlandsPeople. As you gain experience in searching the census you will become aware of where problems in the indexing can occur and develop ways of getting round them. Generally speaking FreeCen (mainly 1841 and 1851 in Scotland at present) and ScotlandsPeople have the best indexing although there are a few errors in both of them. Ancestry tends to suffer from poor transcription in places.

Eric

[Jean Jeanie]

Hi Alan

This looks like them in 1841, courtesy of Freecen. Just a little mistranscription!!

1841 Census
11 Records found


Piece: SCT1841/288 Place: Forfar -Angus Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Forfar Second Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: Forfar Second
Folio: 1 Page: 2
Address: Barracks



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Surname First name(s) Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
KARR William M 35 Weaver Angus
KARR Christion F 30 Angus
KARR Agnes F 3 Angus
KARR Charles M 1 Angus
CAMBEL James M 40 Labourer Angus
CAMBEL Beaty F 40 Outside Census County (1841)
AIRTH William M 25 Weaver Angus
AIRTH Elisabeth F 20 Angus
AIRTH Ann F 1 Angus
WEABSTER Jean F 75 Winder Angus
SIMPSON Hellen F 55 Winder Angus

Best wishes
Jean

[AndrewP]

Hi Alan,

A parent search on the online IGI gives the following children as born to William Kerr and Christina Clark:

• AGNES KERR - Birth: 03 MAR 1838 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
  CHARLES KERR - Birth: 04 AUG 1839 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
  JAMES KERR - Birth: 10 MAR 1843 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
  ELIZABETH ALLAN KERR - Birth: 01 SEP 1844 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
  MARGARET KERR - Birth: 01 MAY 1846 Forfar, Angus, Scotland

These are all extracted from the records, so should be found on the OPRs at ScotlandsPeople.

All the best,

AndrewP

[Aliballibee]

Morning all,

Many thanks for all your assistance - what a fantastically helpful forum.

We have a family bible that started with Agnes Kerr and her husband so this started me off.

I did read about mistyped entries but didn't think I'd find them on my early searches.

AndrewP - I've always wanted to perform a simple check on how many children a couple may have had - have you used a particular check to find all the KERR children or searched for them individually?

Cheers

Alan

[Aliballibee]

A parent search on the online IGI gives the following children as born to William Kerr and Christina Clark:

AGNES KERR - Birth: 03 MAR 1838 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
CHARLES KERR - Birth: 04 AUG 1839 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
JAMES KERR - Birth: 10 MAR 1843 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
ELIZABETH ALLAN KERR - Birth: 01 SEP 1844 Forfar, Angus, Scotland
MARGARET KERR - Birth: 01 MAY 1846 Forfar, Angus, Scotland

An extract from the Forfar Parish record has Agnes and Charles as children 1 & 2, James, Elizabeth and Margaret as children 4, 5 & 6.

I presume child number 3 died at birth and isn't registered, but interesting that they noted it by naming James as child number 4.

Alan

[nelmit]

Hi Alan,

Hopefully Andrew won't mind if I try answer your question.

You can do a 'parent search' at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/ ... search.asp by inserting the father and mother's names in the appropriate boxes and nothing else. This brings up the children registered to that couple before 1875 - the original records can be viewed at SP. You can give it a try with Agnes and her spouse.
If they were born before 1855 and baptised in an established church then it's usually an index of christening records which can also be viewed at SP.

Regards,
Annette

Later............I see you discovered the 'parent search' but thought I'd leave this anyway.

[Aliballibee]

Hi Annette

Thanks for your assistance.

I didn't find the parent search - I'd copied that from AndrewP's post (apologies for the confusion - should have put that in quotes).

We have a number of couples in the family tree that have large numbers of children I wanted to make sure I caught them all.

Kind regards

Alan

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings again Alan.

I too have been lucky enough to have had baptisms/christenings recorded by Parishes where sibling order was recorded.

This I've found very helpful when comparing with later census returns, but other times leaves one with big question marks over the unrecorded gaps.

Re the IGI and some other sites, not only is it possible to do family of, searches, it is possible to do searches of middle names. So in your case it is possible to search the OPR records for Forfar Parish Angus and see how many other children had Allan as a middle name. Often that was a tie back to a Maternal line.

Like wise with the transcription problems, there are many smart ways of wild card searching through indexes to try and locate the missing. Ask, and the experts here will freely assist you on your journey of discovery.

Alan SHARP.
PS. Your profile may not state where you are, but your GOOD MORNING tells me you are on the otherside from the Alan's down under. Bed time now.

[Aliballibee]

Greetings again Alan.

I too have been lucky enough to have had baptisms/christenings recorded by Parishes where sibling order was recorded.

This I've found very helpful when comparing with later census returns, but other times leaves one with big question marks over the unrecorded gaps.

Re the IGI and some other sites, not only is it possible to do family of, searches, it is possible to do searches of middle names. So in your case it is possible to search the OPR records for Forfar Parish Angus and see how many other children had Allan as a middle name. Often that was a tie back to a Maternal line.

Like wise with the transcription problems, there are many smart ways of wild card searching through indexes to try and locate the missing. Ask, and the experts here will freely assist you on your journey of discovery.

Alan SHARP.
PS. Your profile may not state where you are, but your GOOD MORNING tells me you are on the otherside from the Alan's down under. Bed time now.

Good night Alan and thank you.

I'm in Penicuik, just outside Edinburgh and will give everyone a little clue when I update my profile.



Alan