Ages on Census

[islayhawk]

Is it normal for ages to be wrong on a Census.?? I am tracing two ancestors. On the 1901 Census one the Brothers who is called James Hart is  shown to be 65 and the other Brother Henry Hart is shown to be 60.
However 10 years later in the 1911 Census, James age has jumped to 78 and Henry's to 80.
I have reason to believe that these  brothers could have been twins and lived to be 104yrs. They died within 2 weeks of each other. My problem how do I pin their date of death with discrepancies like this.

Peter Hart

[CaroleW]

Hi

Is it normal for ages to be wrong on a Census

I don't think I would be exaggerating if I said about 60% of census ages were not fully representative of the true age.  The number of people who only age 5yrs between a 10yr census is incredible

Firstly - you have to allow for the high levels of illiteracy in those days. 

Secondly - census info was often given by people unconnected to the person concerned - a landlady or another unrelated member of the household - so many were "guesstimates"

Also - census images are not always clear so transcriptions will often show the wrong age - I have seen 35 transcribed as 55 for example

And then there is always the couple where one is considerably older than the other but plays down their age so the difference isn't so noticeable. 

Re: their deaths - are there lots of possible death entries in Antrim for those names?

[CaroleW]

I can only see one Henry Hart death in Antrim between 1911-1931 but based on the 1911 age - he should be 99

Henry Hart, age 89, Apr - Jun 1919 Antrim Registration District, volume 1 page 16

[kingskerswell]

Hi,
    Another reason for age discrepencies is that the Old Age Pension was introduced in 1908 and a claiment had to be at least 70 years. As Carole said it is surprising how many people "aged" some years between 1901 and 1911.

Regards