Author Topic: Is this just a case of enumerator error?  (Read 4432 times)

Offline Jang

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #9 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 00:22 BST (UK) »
My best guess is that Maria was never baptised as she was sickly and James was fostered out as his parents couldn't care for both of them. Maria probably died in infancy or early childhood but I can't find a burial for her.

George and Janet parted company sometime before 1856 when Janet had a son, Robert Kirkwood, born 1856 in Alloa Clackmannanshire. The fact that he was baptised a Kirkwood suggests that George Mitchell died but I can't find a burial for him either.
England:
Durham: COULSON, FENWICK, HUNTER, LOWES, NAYLOR, ROBSON
Norfolk: DEWING, OUGHTON, TAYLOR,
Lancashire: TWEDDLE
Ireland: KEATING, KIRBY, Limerick; NELSON, Donegal
Scotland: BENNIE, Glasgow; COOK, Renfrewshire; HENDERSON, Alloa/Dundee; HUNTER, Glasgow; KIRKWOOD, Alloa; LAMONT, Dalkeith; YOUNG, Glasgow
Switzerland: VOSTI, DELUBINI
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Rena

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #10 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 01:35 BST (UK) »
I suspect Maria -?-  was either a visitor or a lodger and perhaps there's another am. researcher who is looking but can't find her.

The probability is that the enumerator was distracted and his/her finger, or ruler, slipped when (s)he was transcribing the information from the individual household schedule to the official enumeration book.

"From 1841 to 1901 a census schedule was completed for each household, and was then collected by the enumerator who copied the information into an enumeration book. It is these enumeration books that we consult today online and on microfilm."

Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie:  Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke

Offline Rosinish

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #11 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 02:06 BST (UK) »
My best guess is that Maria was never baptised as she was sickly and James was fostered out as his parents couldn't care for both of them. Maria probably died in infancy or early childhood but I can't find a burial for her.

Baptisms often took place at home & more so if a child was ill.

Edit...Just noticed census was 31 March  ::)  ;D

I checked SP for anyone named Maria (surname blank) for Lanark/Glasgow area.

Closest I could find with an age of 2 wks was;


MCKENNA MARIA
ED MCKENNA/MARGARET GALLAGHER (Parents)
1/4/1851 (Born)
20/4/1851 (Baptised)
Glasgow, St John's Lanark


Strangely, she's not on the 1851 under the surname McKenna/MacKenna


A long shot but do you have any connection with her parents surnames, could she be a relative as Rena says  :-\

Add...Deaths pre 1855 were seldom recorded sadly

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 Jang

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #12 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 04:23 BST (UK) »
Rena and Annie, thanks for the feedback.

I didn't know about the scarcity of pre 1855 burials. I also ran into the same problem with the date of the census really narrowing down the possible birth date.

I'm beginning to think it was enumerator error after all. Maria is definitely not a family name - she must belong to someone else. James was the name of George Mitchell's father (mother Elizabeth) while Janet's parents were William and Janet.
England:
Durham: COULSON, FENWICK, HUNTER, LOWES, NAYLOR, ROBSON
Norfolk: DEWING, OUGHTON, TAYLOR,
Lancashire: TWEDDLE
Ireland: KEATING, KIRBY, Limerick; NELSON, Donegal
Scotland: BENNIE, Glasgow; COOK, Renfrewshire; HENDERSON, Alloa/Dundee; HUNTER, Glasgow; KIRKWOOD, Alloa; LAMONT, Dalkeith; YOUNG, Glasgow
Switzerland: VOSTI, DELUBINI
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk


Offline Jang

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 06:07 BST (UK) »
Just found a Maria Lochart, aged 2 months, living with her family at 20 Union Barony - a likely contender for the mistranscribed Maria Mitchell. :-)
England:
Durham: COULSON, FENWICK, HUNTER, LOWES, NAYLOR, ROBSON
Norfolk: DEWING, OUGHTON, TAYLOR,
Lancashire: TWEDDLE
Ireland: KEATING, KIRBY, Limerick; NELSON, Donegal
Scotland: BENNIE, Glasgow; COOK, Renfrewshire; HENDERSON, Alloa/Dundee; HUNTER, Glasgow; KIRKWOOD, Alloa; LAMONT, Dalkeith; YOUNG, Glasgow
Switzerland: VOSTI, DELUBINI
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline capricorn

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #14 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 07:57 BST (UK) »
George Mitchell, boilermaker, and Janet Kirkwood married in Glasgow on 4 June 1850.

Their son, James Mitchell, was baptised on 3 April 1851 in Glasgow.

So far, so good. But the 1851 census has the family living at 75 Clyde St, Barony:

George Mitchell 28  head married Foundry Labourer Alloa
Janet Mitchell wife married 26 Foundry Labourer's wife Alloa
Maria Mitchell daughter 2 weeks  Glasgow
Jan

A possible

I found a George Mitchell's death in the Index to Burials (Glasgow High Church)
His age is out slightly and also his occupation.......... which raises  the question, could he have gone from boilermaker to Foundry Labourer to Mason

This George formerly residing in Anderson (same district as 1851 census)
Buried 12th April 1853.....a Mason  aged 32
Cause of death....Phthisis
Census information Crown Copyright, from
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Jang

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #15 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 08:34 BST (UK) »
Thanks Capricorn. I did check this one - I thought at the time it seemed unlikely he'd go from foundry labourer to mason but I guess stranger things have happened. I noticed he was buried the Common Ground - does that mean he was a pauper? That would fit with what I know of the family circumstances.

The timing fits, so does the location ...
England:
Durham: COULSON, FENWICK, HUNTER, LOWES, NAYLOR, ROBSON
Norfolk: DEWING, OUGHTON, TAYLOR,
Lancashire: TWEDDLE
Ireland: KEATING, KIRBY, Limerick; NELSON, Donegal
Scotland: BENNIE, Glasgow; COOK, Renfrewshire; HENDERSON, Alloa/Dundee; HUNTER, Glasgow; KIRKWOOD, Alloa; LAMONT, Dalkeith; YOUNG, Glasgow
Switzerland: VOSTI, DELUBINI
Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Online Forfarian

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #16 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 08:43 BST (UK) »
The probability is that the enumerator was distracted and his/her finger, or ruler, slipped when (s)he was transcribing the information from the individual household schedule to the official enumeration book.
It does happen. I have one showing the husband's names, marital status, age and occupation followed on the same line by the birthplace of the wife, who cannot be found anywhere else.

Quote
My best guess is that Maria was never baptised
The more usual thing with a sickly child was to get it baptised in a hurry, because many people believed that an unbaptised child would not be able to enter heaven after death, even if they didn't actually adhere to the Roman Catholic idea of Limbo.

Has anyone found a possible Maria in any later census?
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

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Re: Is this just a case of enumerator error?
« Reply #17 on: Tuesday 29 May 18 08:55 BST (UK) »
I'm not sure if the entry I have is for a birth or baptism - I suspect the latter
Glasgow
George Mitchell, boilermaker and Janet Kirkwood, a law. son James b 4 April 1851
witnesses Robert Mitchell, Robert Kirkwood. (His parents married on 4 June 1850 in Glasgow.)
Usually the Glasgow register lists the date (sometimes only the year) of baptism first, and the date of birth later, if at all, prefixed by bo: which makes it clear which date is which. Have you got an image of the original document?

Quote
He could be the James Mitchell, living with the Beveridge family in 1851:

William Beveridge 24  St Nunans Parish, Stirlingshire  shoemaker
Margaret Beveridge 28  Paisley, Renfrewshire nurse
Isabella Beveridge 4  Glasgow
William Som 18  lodger mason Edinburgh, Midlothian
James Mitchell 4 Mo  Glasgow, Lanarkshire Nursing Child (Child)
Parish Number: 644/2
Civil Parish: Gorbals
County: Lanarkshire
Address: 87 Centre St
Not if he was born on 4 April, as the census was taken on 31 March 1851.

(BTW it's St Ninian's, not St Nunans - is this a transcriber's error? I assume it's from Ancestry.)
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.