hopton

[Forfarian]

Hi Forfarian, I also havent seen John's birth in the indices, and 1855 is an estimate based on census records of 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891 (which include inaccuracies as you suggest). 1854 seems at least possible.

It's not necessarily an imaccuracy in the original census.

The census is taken around the end of March or beginning of April, about a quarter of the way through the year, and people are asked their age on the day of the census. So in any given year only about a quarter of people will have had their birthday in census year, and three-quarters won't. So if someone is aged say 16 in the 1871 census, they are three times more likely to have been born in 1854 than in 1855, and so on.

In most cases it doesn't make a lot of difference, because any reasonable researcher will look for a couple of years either side of the approximate year, but in the case of people aged 6 in 1861, 16 in 1871, 26 in 1881, 36 in 1891, 46 in 1901 or 56 in 1911 it makes a big difference because the 1855 records are so much more comprehensive than in any other year.