Author Topic: How much to census returns really tell you?  (Read 5166 times)

Offline groom

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #18 on: Tuesday 25 April 17 21:34 BST (UK) »
In the 1911 census,  my great uncle,  Walter Sedgwick of Hartlepool, Co Durham,  appears in Stafford as Sidney Rainbow, together with his wife and children.  It was thanks to Jan (Groom) that he was found, and we suspect that Sidney was  unofficially sub-letting the house to Walter Sedgwick, and that Walter, in a panic, took his name on census night.  His wife and children retained their forenames, but also appeared as Rainbows!  Another example of how census returns can be misleading.

It was pure luck there that his wife and children had uncommon forenames and kept them, together with the correct ages and places of birth!  ;D ;D
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Greensleeves

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #19 on: Tuesday 25 April 17 22:38 BST (UK) »
Just an aside here, as I noticed with interest that Coombs has St Helen Auckland, Durham links, as well as Suffolk links.  I have the same, with my Sidgwick family lurking in the St Helen Auckland area for a number of years,  before trotting off to Hartlepool in search of better money and poorer housing conditions, no doubt.

I remain hugely impressed Jan (Groom), despite your claim that the discovery was luck.  To be asked to find Walter Sedgwick and then present me, correctly, with Sidney Rainbow, takes some special kind of skill!
Suffolk: Pearl(e),  Garnham, Southgate, Blo(o)mfield,Grimwood/Grimwade,Josselyn/Gosling
Durham/Yorkshire: Sedgwick/Sidgwick, Shadforth
Ireland: Davis
Norway: Torreson/Torsen/Torrison
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Janelle

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #20 on: Tuesday 25 April 17 22:47 BST (UK) »
We can also wonder about the level of education some enumerators had especially those employed in urban places in 1861 because that is the year that I find with more erroneous entries ;)

Offline coombs

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #21 on: Tuesday 25 April 17 22:59 BST (UK) »
Just an aside here, as I noticed with interest that Coombs has St Helen Auckland, Durham links, as well as Suffolk links.  I have the same, with my Sidgwick family lurking in the St Helen Auckland area for a number of years,  before trotting off to Hartlepool in search of better money and poorer housing conditions, no doubt.

I remain hugely impressed Jan (Groom), despite your claim that the discovery was luck.  To be asked to find Walter Sedgwick and then present me, correctly, with Sidney Rainbow, takes some special kind of skill!

Yes, my Durham ancestors lived in the St Helen Auckland areas. Musgrave, Wilson, Forster. Several of them went to America, including a direct ancestor.

One of them went to America in July 1880 so missed the 1880 US census and had left England by 1881 of course. Pity the 1890 US census has just a few fragments.

Also newspaper ads and workhouse records can fill in the 10 year gaps between censi on top of BMDs and directories. Makes you wonder just how many un digitised records are out there with info on our rellies.
Researching:

LONDON, Coombs, Roberts, Auber, Helsdon, Fradine, Morin, Goodacre
DORSET Coombs, Munday
NORFOLK Helsdon, Riches, Harbord, Budery
KENT Roberts, Goodacre
SUSSEX Walder, Boniface, Dinnage, Standen, Lee, Botten, Wickham, Jupp
SUFFOLK Titshall, Frost, Fairweather, Mayhew, Archer, Eade, Scarfe
DURHAM Stewart, Musgrave, Wilson, Forster
SCOTLAND Stewart in Selkirk
USA Musgrave, Saix
ESSEX Cornwell, Stock, Quilter, Lawrence, Whale, Clift
OXON Edgington, Smith, Inkpen, Snell, Batten, Brain


Offline aghadowey

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #22 on: Tuesday 25 April 17 23:22 BST (UK) »
We have a census mystery that looks quite reasonable at first glance- so reasonable that a cousin has added the details to online tree  :-\

Background- my grandmother's parents (both born Canada) lived on an island and had 6 daughters & 1 son (youngest child) :-\- all are fully documented (birth, baptism, school records, etc.) & the places they lived (with dates) are known. A few months before the census her mother died.
Now, the 1930 U.S. census lists father as widower, 2 unmarried daughters, 2 grandsons and a son. No problem, right? WRONG!
The 'real' son is living with his wife and child on a boat at the island so appears as the next census entry. The 'mystery' son is given as same age as my grandmother with same birthplace as most of the children, same occupation as his 'father.' His first name is a surname (not one found elsewhere in family). Strangely enough, a boy the same age with the same first name appears in a previous census in the same town with a different surname (his mother and sister both have yet again different surnames and I've been unable to trace any of them in other records).
When the census record was released I asked all living relatives for information but none of them remember this person, hearing the name or any mention of an illegitimate child. Based on all I know I find it difficult to believe at my grandmother's bereaved father would not have acknowledged a child or would have had an illegitimate son staying with the family but if such a thing did happen then his family would certainly have known about it.

To further illustrate misleading census information- same great-grandfather, a brother and a sister are listed in the 1911 Canadian census in the childhood home with mother as head of household. All three had lived outside Canada for years and were only home for a visit.
Away sorting out DNA matches... I may be gone for some time many years!

Offline Sloe Gin

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #23 on: Wednesday 26 April 17 00:20 BST (UK) »
We can also wonder about the level of education some enumerators had especially those employed in urban places in 1861 because that is the year that I find with more erroneous entries ;)

They could only copy down what the householders (or whoever assisted them) had written on the forms.  There would have been lots of poor handwriting that was difficult to read. 
UK census content is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk  Transcriptions are my own.

Offline Andrew Tarr

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #24 on: Wednesday 26 April 17 23:29 BST (UK) »
We can also wonder about the level of education some enumerators had especially those employed in urban places in 1861 because that is the year that I find with more erroneous entries ;)

They could only copy down what the householders (or whoever assisted them) had written on the forms.  There would have been lots of poor handwriting that was difficult to read.

In 1861 many of the householders would not have been able to write adequately, so the enumerators would have to interpret their dictation.
Tarr, Tydeman, Liversidge, Bartlett, Young

Offline Rosinish

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #25 on: Thursday 27 April 17 00:19 BST (UK) »
I was recorded three times on the 1981 census.

Not being a householder at the time, all these events passed me by. It was a couple of months later that I was aware of it but by then no one wanted to know.

Chas

So, come 2081 your descendants will be on a wild goose Chas(e) & trying to work out which is really you  ???  ::)  ;D

Annie
South Uist, Inverness-shire, Scotland:- Bowie, Campbell, Cumming, Currie

Ireland:- Cullen, Flannigan (Derry), Donahoe/Donaghue (variants) (Cork), McCrate (Tipperary), Mellon, Tol(l)and (Donegal & Tyrone)

Newcastle-on-Tyne/Durham (Northumberland):- Harrison, Jude, Kemp, Lunn, Mellon, Robson, Stirling

Kettering, Northampton:- MacKinnon

Canada:- Callaghan, Cumming, MacPhee

"OLD GENEALOGISTS NEVER DIE - THEY JUST LOSE THEIR CENSUS"

Offline Greensleeves

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Re: How much to census returns really tell you?
« Reply #26 on: Thursday 27 April 17 08:35 BST (UK) »
An interesting mis-spelling which I found on one of the scavenger hunts on here was that an elusive Mrs Howell turned out to have been entered as Mrs Owl.   ;D

It would also help if our ancestors knew their own names.  I have a lady who married with the surname of Mattley, and even gave that name to her first-born son as a Christian name.  After battering at a brick wall for some time, all was revealed when I found that her surname was actually Mattingley.  The situation had been complicated because there was a birth at the same time as hers, also in London, with her forename, the surname Mattley, and the same father's name as had appeared on my ancestor's marriage certificate.
Suffolk: Pearl(e),  Garnham, Southgate, Blo(o)mfield,Grimwood/Grimwade,Josselyn/Gosling
Durham/Yorkshire: Sedgwick/Sidgwick, Shadforth
Ireland: Davis
Norway: Torreson/Torsen/Torrison
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk