How much to census returns really tell you?

[Greensleeves]

Whilst searching for an ancestor recently, it occurred to me that the ten-yearly census returns leave huge gaps in our knowledge.   

I thought about my own life, and it is certainly true here.  A census of 1951 would find me in Ipswich, Suffolk; and the 1961 census would also find me in Ipswich.  However, during those ten years I moved from Ipswich to Norfolk, then to Yorkshire, back to Ipswich briefly, off to Huntingdonshire, then to Cyprus for two years, returning briefly to Blackpool and then back to Ipswich.  But as far as the census returns are concerned, I never left Ipswich! 

[Jool]

Good point GS, and the example of your own moves around the country (and also out of it) prove that all we see is a snapshot of one day in their life every 10 years.  It makes you wonder what we are missing in those years between the census.

My example would be the opposite of yours, I have lived in the same town all of my life, although in 5 different houses.

[Rena]

This is why it's important to find if there are any surviving family photographs and old postcards, which could give clues.

Also 1951 to 1961 might not be a mystery if the person had been conscripted into H.M. Forces

[Greensleeves]

Well spotted, Rena, as my father was in the Royal Air Force.  But someone just checking the census may well not have found him 'at home' on either occasion as he was frequently abroad whilst we were left in this country, so my mother might on both census have been marked as 'married' and 'Head' of household, without any clue as to the missing husband.      So just looking at the census returns, with my father absent, there would be no indication that he was in the RAF since he wasn't there.....

[Rosinish]

I have a strange one too in the 10 yrs from 2001 - 2011.

Married on the 2001 yet divorced on the 2011.

I am in the same abode (house/address) which I've been in for over 30 yrs.

No-one will understand why I would say I was married on the 2001 yet divorced on the 2011 as there's 'No marriage to be found' 

I was married abroad but they will find my divorce if they think to look unless they just assume I was lying 

No children to the marriage either!

Annie

[Ruskie]

Agreed.

Some people also assume too much from what they see on the census. They don't consider (or forget) that the census only listed the people living in a house for one night.

Because a grandchild was living with grandparents they assume the parents are dead or separated. If a married daughter is with her parents they assume she is separated or in an unhappy marriage. If a married man is not at home they may incorrectly presume he has abandoned the family .... etc.

 

[Rosinish]

Gs & Ruskie,

I think this topic has highlighted quite a few things which are often mistaken for other things as sometimes people are too quick to make assumptions 

Annie

[Andrew Tarr]

Some people also assume too much from what they see on the census. They don't consider (or forget) that the census only listed the people living in a house for one night.

The 1891 census raised an unanswered question about my widowed gt-grandmother, who resided in a Liverpool suburb with several children.  She was recorded (with two teenagers) in the company of an unmarried man of similar age (~50) in Wallasey.  That is his only known appearance in her life.  I presume that if anything naughty was happening, they believed census records were confidential ?

[Skoosh]

The census is a snapshot taken mainly for government statisticians, it wasn't designed for family historians!

Skoosh.