Place of birth on census

[DeafDoggy488]

Hi, I've been looking at one of my ancestors records and have found them in the cenuses between 1841 to 1871. However this one really confused me as this person appears to have given at least three different countries as her place of birth!

1841- Scotland
1851- no place was recorded
1861- England
1871- Prembrokeshire in Wales

So what i'm asking is if this was a common thing for people to do in the 19th Century, to give different countries as their place of birth? I know that the Censuses were notorious for getting facts wrong but this is ridiculous...

[hallmark]

Yes.

[carol8353]

Over 6 censuses my ggreat grandma gave 6 different places of birth!

[DeafDoggy488]

Over 6 censuses my ggreat grandma gave 6 different places of birth!

6 different places of birth?! That must be extremely difficult to pinpoint where she was born to find her baptism records!

[Gone]

My 2x Gt grandparents, once separated, gave different places of birth, ages, names, one was on the 1871 census twice in different counties, and the other married bigamously.
Griff

[Rosinish]

1841- Scotland
1851- no place was recorded
1861- England
1871- Prembrokeshire in Wales

So what i'm asking is if this was a common thing for people to do in the 19th Century, to give different countries as their place of birth?

I think the most common reasons for PoB being different was father in Military or Journeyman as some didn't actually know where they were born as well as others filling in the form in the absence of the person themselves?

I noticed on my daughter's facebook profile she had 'from ...' which is the county we have lived in since she was 2 yrs old (32 yrs)!! I pointed it out to her but now wondering if it was a case of her not actually knowing/noting she was born elsewhere as she'd have no memory of her PoB other than visiting although she has her BC it is only used a proof of identity & as she has no interest in genealogy, I doubt she'd ever examined it   

Annie

[carol8353]

Over 6 censuses my ggreat grandma gave 6 different places of birth!

6 different places of birth?! That must be extremely difficult to pinpoint where she was born to find her baptism records!

Yes it was!

I knew that she'd never left the Cheshire area though,so discounted the 1861 which said London!!!

[stanmapstone]

The chief clerk of the GRO claimed that the birthplace tables were probably the most inaccurate of any of the census tables..... a great many people did not know in which county they were born. There was also a tendency to record the place of residence, or the earliest one which could be remembered, as the place of birth.
Stan

[Regorian]

I think it was intentional, people resented being listed and recorded. One  family member from wider family, a long liver, gave different places of birth each Census.

I think it was the 1861, my gggrandfather (1831 to 1901) gave his place of birth as Pillowell, Glos. As I worked backwards, this caused me a lot of trouble and time. It was only trawling through the Bishops Transcripts at Gloucester CRO (originals) large book, noisy dry pages, that I found that he was baptised Clearwell Chapel (All Saints, Newland).

1851, his father 1792 to 1857 correctly gave his pob as Mitcheltroy, Mon. His wife initially gave ditto. That was crossed out and T abby (Tintern Abbey) substituted. Why was this?

Otherwise, most people knew where they were born, it was important to them, long before nationalism, village loyalty. Village fought village, don't know whether it extended to men .

Learned another bit of wisdom, courtesy my cousin who employed a genealogist to take my researches back or rubbish my researches, take your pick. Genealogist couldn't as PR's started a mere 7 years earlier although it blew the whole thing wide open. Great for me. It explained why so many missing burial entries. They were buried in the family roots parish Llandogo, Mon., the last dying in 1804 from whom we are descended.