What can I hope to find on a christening record?

[Annette7]

I think you have the wrong 1871 census entry as he is with his wife in Everton and birthplace is Ireland as before.

Annette

It says place of birth is Scotland, not Ireland 

Debra 

Apologies - went by transcription on Ancestry which states Ireland but now see original page says Scotland.

Annette

[Skoosh]

I've seen English census entries where Scots were described as Irish!

Skoosh.

[Rosinish]

Me too also 

I wonder if they tried to guess by accents although numerous people say all census records were filled in by the Heads of household i.e. this is strange?

Annie

[Skoosh]

Assisted in many cases by whoever was taking the census!

Skoosh.

[Forfarian]

I wonder if they tried to guess by accents although numerous people say all census records were filled in by the Heads of household i.e. this is strange?

The head of household was asked to fill in a form. The forms were collected by the enumerator who then copied the information into the book.

So there are two opportunities for an error - first, when the head of household fills in the form, especially if (s)he was unable to write and had to rely on help from the enumerator or someone else, and second when the enumerator copied the information from the form to the book. He might have had difficulty reading the form, or he might have made an incorrect assumption, or he might simply have misread something, or he might have missed out some of what was on the form. I've seen examples that could have been any of these.