Genealogy Chat

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I had not seen these before and wondered how many others had also not seen them.. Places of birth given in censuses are often inaccurate so, if in doubt, check other census returns for the same person for a ‘second opinion’. The poor had a great fear of being ‘moved on’ or being told to return whence they came. In censuses, many claimed to have been born where they were enumerated, even if this was not so. For a GenesConnected member I recently proved that two Irish people in Middlesborough who said they were born there were actually from Cork! In censuses, households were sometimes enumerated though the back door. If the people you want are not found in the street you expected, use a contemporary map to discover what the surrounding streets were and look there as well. Many censuses, especially those for 1901, 1891 and 1881 are fully indexed, but not entirely accurately. If you cannot find your ancestors using these indexes, you can still search in the original census returns at the Family Records Centre and elsewhere. Don’t forget that, while ages were given (supposedly) accurately from 1851 onwards, those for adults in the 1841 census were mostly rounded down to the nearest five years. Someone aged 45 in the 1841 census would therefore have been born between 1796 and 1791. After censuses were taken, they were analysed for statistical purposes and entries were crossed off in blue pencil. So don’t worry if your ancestor seems to have been crossed out- he’d been counted, that was all! If you cannot read a place of birth or occupation in a census, look up and down the surrounding pages and see if you can find the same word or at least some of the letters written more clearly.

Thanks so much, great tips.

When using the 1841 census, remember also that your ancestors may not have given their correct age anyway, so that combined with what Margaret stated about the ages being rounded down, leaves you with a wholly inaccurate age. For those that don't know, the 1841 census also doesn't list where people were born. The only question they had to answer was whether they were living in the county where they were born. In other words, a yes or no answer was all that was required.