RootsChat.Com

I am sure there is room for someone to write a book on the ups and downs of being a census enumeraotr!

I was an enumerator for the 2011 Census, covering communal establishments such as nursing homes, hotels/b&bs, and caravan sites in a rural area.  Despite being told at the induction that all the data we would be using was carefully prepared, some of the addresses, particularly for the smaller caravan sites, were only a village and a postcode.  I spent a lot of time on Google and then driving up and down lanes looking for gaps in hedges!  There were also plenty of places that had ceased trading, were derelict, had been wrongly categorised or were out of area.

On the upside, I did get to meet a lot of lovely people and, as I recall, the weather was sunny and bright for March .

The mystery deepens . . .

I now have the death certificate for “M” (I won’t use her full name while her sister is still living) which shows her DOB in October 1917.  I’ve looked again at the birth registration and there are two:

Stafford RD Q1 1935 vol 6B page 29, mmn “L”
Stafford RD Q4 1917 vol 6B, no page number, mmn “L”

On the original index for Oct-Nov 1917 there is a handwritten entry for “M” with her mmn, RD, volume and a comment “see M ’35”.

I think there is little doubt that both entries refer to the same person.

“M”s mother was born in Q4 1903 and married in Q3 1919 – age just about 16.  On the basis that the 1917 birth date is correct, “M” was born when her mother was only 14.  There is a GRO birth record for “M”, surname “L” (as mmn), for Stafford RD Q4 1917 with the comment “Occasional copy: A”.

This resolves the original query about the YOB on the GRO index for deaths - which is correct at 1917 - but quite why she has two birth registrations is still a puzzle, as is the fact that my mother believed the 1935 date to be correct.

Thanks for the responses people.

The sister is now 98 – it’s not something I want to bother her with (it would be easier to buy the cert).

I’ve always reported errors in the GRO index via their website – all bar one have been corrected once they have checked back with the original.  Most have been down to mistranscription of hand-written “originals”, ie the returns made by the Register Offices, or misunderstanding of female-line surnames used as forenames, confusing the mmn entry.  I’ve not queried a date (or age) before (or a post 1984 death entry, come to that).

Contacting the office that did the registration could be the way to go . . .

The recently added death records from 1984 onwards do not show the age at death (as the earlier records) but show the year of birth instead.

I found an error in the YOB for my mother’s cousin who died in 2014.  This is shown as 1917 when she was in fact born in 1935 – correct in the GRO birth records and in my own family’s records.

I reported this as an error to GRO which they have investigated.  The status is “No amendment required” and the comments state “Indexed data not available”.

I suppose it’s possible that her birth was wrongly recorded when the death was registered although she was living with her older sister (b 1921), who would certainly have known the right YOB. 

I’ve never had a problem in correcting earlier GRO records but this response has stumped me.  Has anyone else come across anything similar with the later death records and/or know why the indexed data is not available?