Census entry made me laugh.

[Cell]

One distantly related member of my family is recorded staying with grandparents and his occupation (poor lad) is given as "bastard"!

Hi,
I wish I kept an article I had a few years ago  ( 3maybe 4 yrs ago ) in one of the  genealogy mags (slightly off topic here, but relevant to the topic) - It was titled  "where  are all the Bastards have gone?" - It was about a living  elderly man in the uk  who was looking for any Bastard's . He is the only one with the surname today in the uk . He' s the only male child ( also is an only child to his parents ) so carried the name - He himself has no children . It was traced back, his father had it, his grandparents had it and so on. Most people who had a surname Bastard - mutated it in recent times ( when I mean recent it was latter half of the 1800's).

Kind regards

[Meezer]

Years ago I used to work with a chap who'd been in the navy in WW2 - he had quite a wicked sense of humour. One day he had to announce a visitor on board ship to the captain - visitor handed him a card and was announced as "there's a Bastard to see you sir"!! Cue an indignant visitor spluttering "it's Bass-tard, an old English name"!

[stanmapstone]

It was about a living  elderly man in the uk  who was looking for any Bastard's . He is the only one with the surname today in the uk .

There are  67 Bastard's on the ONS names list for England, Wales and the Isle of Mann in 2002. There are 77 in the UK electoral registers 2002 - 2013.
Stan

[Greensleeves]

In one census I felt mildly outraged to find that a young lady in my tree had been given the occupation of 'Concubine'!   

[Greensleeves]

I am reminded of a Scavenger Hunt we had on RC a couple of years or so ago, when we were trying to track down  a man who had abandoned his wife and children and moved to (I think) Cambridge.  The family name was Howell and despite searches in various resources we couldn't find him.  Then,  going through the sheets for a specific area of Cambridge where other relatives lived, I came across him:  Mr Owl.   

[JenB]

You might like to take a look through this thread http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=353805.msg2328296#msg2328296 and then its continuation, which kept many of us very happily occupied for several days back in January 2009   

[jbml]

I am reminded of a Scavenger Hunt we had on RC a couple of years or so ago

If you're hunting for scavengers, you will find that at the time of the 1901 census this was the occupation of my great great grandfather Thomas King Spooner.

By 1911 he had gone up in the world a little (but only a little ... )