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Zeb
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Dates seem to varying
« on: Friday 03 September 04 07:06 BST (UK) »
I've come across something strange.  I'm new to all this so this might not be so strange after all.

During my searching I paid to access the government's 1901 census online and found my family in Birmingham, WOODCOCK.  Going by the information it says that my great grandparents on my grandfather's side were born in 1845 and 1854.

While searching via Google I came across a post on a Woodcock guestbook entry someone had left where all the mentioned names matched exactly (very lucky find!) but the dates were 20 years out.  A sibling of my grandfather was mentioned at being born in 1854 where my information from the 1901 census states she was born in 1874.

I looked at the website of the person who made the post (I've also only just emailed them) and it seems that they've done a far greater amount of research than myself which leads me to think their date could be correct.

Does this happen often?
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Derby: WOODCOCK (Donnington)
Devon: HARRIS (Plymouth)
Lancashire: DERRICK
Lincolnshire: CROPPER, WOODCOCK (Boston)
London: BARKER, DUGGIN, HARRIS, HINTON, HULBERT, WHITE
Wales: HARRIS, PRITCHARD (Pembrokeshire)
Warwickshire: DERRICK, WOODCOCK
Desperate for my Woodcocks from Birmingham!
Steve Ley
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Re: Dates seem to varying
« Reply #1 on: Friday 03 September 04 08:20 BST (UK) »
Hi Zeb, It's not unsual for there to be a diffrence in dates form census to census as people forgot or lied about there age. Also if the handwriting is hard to read it can easily be mistranscribed.
Did you view the actual image on the 1901 site or did you view the transcript ? If you only viewed the transcript i would go back and view the image then you will be able to see for yourself the ages written down.

Steve.
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Census images Crown Copyright www.nationalarchives.gov.uk



Researching LEY, MEATS, LEVER (Nottingham)
KERRIAGE/KERRIDGE/CARRIAGE (Norfolk, Cambridge,Lincoln)
WISEMAN (Cambridge)
UNWIN (Staffordshire,Derbyshire)
FRANCES/FRANCIS (Norfolk)
And BELL, McKENZIE and GRAY in Scotland.
Zeb
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Re: Dates seem to varying
« Reply #2 on: Friday 03 September 04 08:53 BST (UK) »
I've got a TIFF file of the scanned page of the census and the dates are definitely stating Harriet's age as 27 in 1901 which gives hear year of birth 1874.  I've just noticed that it gives her parents an age gap of 2 years where in my GenoPro program I've got it noted as an 11 year gap  Undecided

I feel like this is going to take quite some time to get to the bottom of... Huh
Logged
Derby: WOODCOCK (Donnington)
Devon: HARRIS (Plymouth)
Lancashire: DERRICK
Lincolnshire: CROPPER, WOODCOCK (Boston)
London: BARKER, DUGGIN, HARRIS, HINTON, HULBERT, WHITE
Wales: HARRIS, PRITCHARD (Pembrokeshire)
Warwickshire: DERRICK, WOODCOCK
Desperate for my Woodcocks from Birmingham!
Welsh Jen
Dyfal donc a dyr yr garreg!
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Re: Dates seem to varying
« Reply #3 on: Friday 03 September 04 09:12 BST (UK) »
The only absolute way of knowing their births is now to search for their birth entries and if you wish to purchase their full certificates (£7)

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

http://www.1837online.com/

It would be a good idea to get a firm hold of your initial research to compare to someone elses rather than to assume all is correct with someone else's.

I hope this helps you.
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