Census - what are the marks on the sheets?

[Aliballibee]

Hi

I found two Taylor's, George and Arthur on the 1901 census but their occupations have been obliterated by marks (see link)

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/o ... directlink

Can someone please explain what these marks are - it is rather frustrating when you finally find a relative to not be able to see thier professions.

Thanks

Alan

[SarahND]

Hi Alan,
That's a tough one to make out... looks like it starts with "s" and ends with "y" but I can't get any sense from it even with ancestry's new "magnify" tool. I believe the lines and checks were made by the enumerator or someone who was copying it out or counting how many of which occupation, etc. so they are contemporary with the census itself. I'm sure they had no idea that people were going to look at them over a century later and try to read what was written!

All the best,
Sarah

Later: I decided to enlarge it and put it in the gallery-- then realized (I think!) that it says "Navvy"
http://talkingscot.com/gallery/albums/u ... r_1901.jpg

Navvy= "labourer on canals or railways, roads etc."

[AndrewP]

I believe the lines and checks were made by the enumerator or someone who was copying it out or counting how many of which occupation, etc. so they are contemporary with the census itself. I'm sure they had no idea that people were going to look at them over a century later and try to read what was written!

Hi Alan and Sarah,

If you get the chance to see the actual census enumeration book in the ScotlandsPeople Centre, you will see that these lines are made in coloured pencil that you can see through and read the details written underneath them. Unfortunately the census books from 1841 to 1901 (like the birth, marriage and death certificates) were copied from the books onto microfiche in years gone past. On microfiche, the image is made up of black or clear only - no shades of grey. So the coloured pencil marks show up as black, the same as the writing beneath them, and hence appear to score out the information. The images on the ScotlandsPeople website for the censuses up to 1901, and the birth, marriage and death certificates are digital images of the microfiche, so show up as black and white with no shades of grey.

Only the 1911 census and OPRs have been imaged more recently, and were copied in colour. Hence, the enumerators tally marks on the census pages show up as red and blue pencil, and the detail written under these can be easily read.

All the best,

AndrewP

[SarahND]

Hi Andrew,
The image was actually for an English 1901 census-- do you know if the pencil color was the same there? I'm not sure if one can actually ever see the census enumeration books for England...

All the best,
Sarah

[momat]

If this is them, then it reads NAVVY

George 34 Lincs Gt Gonerby London Woolwich Navvy
Arthur 20 Lincs Gt Gonerby London Woolwich Navvy

[Currie]

Just a comment on Maureen’s posting which appears to be from GR’s 1901 Census or the 1901 Census site. http://www.1901censusonline.com/search. ... ith_locale

The 1901 Census site has probably more search options and more information in the free results than is the norm. This site was purchased by Genes Reunited some years ago and the 1901 is better than GR’s own efforts for other census years. The 1901 results include place of birth and occupation and I believe the transcriptions are of a higher quality. Those two results fields were not included in FMP’s 1911 effort.

All the best,
Alan