relationships on census forms

[holden]

If the grandmother is the head of the household and there are 2 daughters and several grandchildren living with her how does the person doing the census know who the grandchildren belong to or do they guess?  On the 1871 census for Tunstall ,Staffs Henry Hopkin is down as the son of Sarah ( daughter of the head Judith) yet in the 1881 census Henry's mother is Mary. Same family of boys but Mary is now head. I cannot see on the census image where it asks for mother's name yet on ancestry it is  in one of the columns. Holden

[Shropshire Lass]

On the 1871, I don't think Henry is down as Sarah's son.  I think the enumerator has just listed the Head, her sons, her daughters and her grandsons, in that order, rather than showing the relationship between the children and the grandsons.

Monica

[trish251]

As per Monica's answer the person doing the census is only interested in relationships to the head of the household, so the parents of the children are not given/known - if they are listed as grandchildren. When looking at the data, we can make assumptions about who is or may be, the parents of said grandchildren.

Ancestry uses a program in an attempt to determine parents/spouses from the information given on the census - sometimes it gets it right - sometimes it doesn't   

Trish

[stanmapstone]

If the grandmother is the head of the household and there are 2 daughters and several grandchildren living with her how does the person doing the census know who the grandchildren belong to or do they guess? 

It is worth remembering that the censuses were taken purely for statistical purposes and not for future family historians.
Stan

[holden]

Thanks for those replies. It's obviously the Ancestry transcriber who has made a guess at the mother of the grandchildren so I will take no notice as it isn't on the census image. Holden