daughter 15 yrs old marked as visitor

[bramhallbill]

 Hi Folks
1861 Census for widow Isabella Robson at Park Shields Warden Outdoor labourer aged 45
has Dtr Dorothy (UM) 23
Son Thomas 17
Dtr Ann 13
Dtr Mary 10
Grandson Wm 2 (looks like 12)
Visitor Isabella 15........odd as Isabella is a daughter too.
I know kids were farmed out to relatives etc.....but seems odd. Any ideas?
Sometimes I have seen visiting kids listed as grandchildren & not related at all

[Scribble1952]

I have been informed that if a person was visiting that night they would be counted as living there😊

[Tickettyboo]

Maybe Isabella was in service and didn't live with her Mam full time anymore, but was visiting on the night of the census?
The interpretation of what should be recorded, and how, on the census returns can be wildly different from one family (and enumerator) to another.

Boo

[a-l]

With the lady being a widow I would think that the daughter was away at work , in service most likely. She just happened to be visiting that day.

[groom]

With the lady being a widow I would think that the daughter was away at work , in service most likely. She just happened to be visiting that day.

I would think that is the answer, as girls used to start work as servants around the age of 14 in some cases. What does it give as her occupation? Far better recorded like that rather than those where you have "grandchild" and people then assume they were living with grandparents, when in fact they were probably just there visiting on census night.

[Tickettyboo]

I would think that is the answer, as girls used to start work as servants around the age of 14 in some cases. What does it give as her occupation? Far better recorded like that rather than those where you have "grandchild" and people then assume they were living with grandparents, when in fact they were probably just there visiting on census night.

and the census returns were never intended to show where people 'lived' just where they spent the night in question (or returned there to sleep the next day if they were working a nightshift). Though interpretations of those instructions did vary  (as do our present day perceptions of the census returns) that 'was' the intention.

Boo

[Maiden Stone]

Was 1861 census on Mothering Sunday, 4th Sunday in Lent, by any chance ? That was the day a girl in service was traditionally allowed the day off to visit her mother, taking with her a gift of a Simnel cake.

[crowsfeet]

1861 Census date was 7 April.

Regards Crowsfeet

[Rosinish]

A simple question put the wrong way such as 'what are the names of everyone/any others in the household' not enquiring if they were going to be sleeping there that night may have caused confusion not only in 1861 but most census years 

Annie