1901/11 irish census - Ages not right

[genseacher]

Hi all
Just thought I would post in relation to ages of parents on the 1901/1911 Irish census.
I have found that the ages of people on both census are wrong.
Can anyone tell me why the ages of parents were not right.
Here are some examples of my rooney family

1911 census for my rooney family
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Inns_Quay/Chancery_St_/34030/

1901 census for my rooney family
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Inns_Quay/Chancery_Street/1278852/

Esther is 26 in the 1901 census and 32 in the 1911 census
can anyone explain this
I have  more examples of other families in my genealogy
regards genseacher

[shanew147]

many ages are wrong on the census.. it seems remembering ages was not as important to some people at that time.

Some families do give very accurate ages, and younger children's ages tend to be more correct.


Shane

[aghadowey]

This is nothing to do with Irish census records- it happens in many countries. Ages, and other information, in census records shoul be used as a guide to finding other records. Many people, particularly in early records were illiterate or weren't sure of their own birthdate so it's not surprising mistakes were made.

[genseacher]

thanks for replying
Yes I know age was not an issue please don't scold me
its just that records i have are not the right ones that all
Are the Family Search records more accurate like the irish civil reg records
thank you
genseacher
 

[aghadowey]

There are 2 types of records on LDS site www.familysearch.org- submitted and extracted. The extracted ones should be more reliable than the submitted ones (although there can be mistakes) but the submitted ones do need to be treated with extreme caution (there are often conflicting submitted records).
Not sure I understand what you mean by "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all." Is it that you've found some possible census records but the ages don't seem to match up to the ages you thought (as your 1st post implied) or that you have been unable to find the people you are searching for in the 1901 and 1911 census?

[rathmore]

The Irish RC would not conform to the english rule, that why the ages are not right, and often when the census came to the house the Irish would give the wrong names.  I know this because my late mum told me, my family come from County Donegal.  Their were Rooney around Ballyshannon that play football for club Aodh Ruadh

[aghadowey]

The Irish RC would not conform to the english rule, that why the ages are not right, and often when the census came to the house the Irish would give the wrong names.  I know this because my late mum told me, my family come from County Donegal.

While that might be true in some cases the most common reasons for census mistakes are those I gave in reply #2.
My father-in-law (who was literate) coud never remember dates, including his own birthdate/year, and my father once nearly filled out a census form by putting my younger sister as older than me (she's 4 years younger) so mistakes are quite common.

[genseacher]

Hi
thanks so much for your reply
In relation to my quote  "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all."
A friend done a look up for me in carlow bagnalstown in parish records
in relation to ellen dwyer and patrick dwyer and the info I received from them was that

Patrick Dwyer died in Ballymoon (carlow) 21st Nov 1906 aged 81 years
and his wife Ellen died 10th June 1906 aged 73 years

yet the census of 1901 have them as follows with their daughter (Ellen Dwyer her details are correct)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Carlow/Bagenalstown_Rural/Kilcarrig__part_of_rural_/1038590/

The age is so far out with the father Patrick Dwyer

Many thanks
genseacher

[DarrenO]

I've found very few ages increasing by 10 years between the two census for my family, i've one relative who is 49 in 1901 and 71 in 1911, is this the largest increase in age between census?? all down to the Pensions Act, i've no doubt.

The census has helped identify a few more to add for the family tree but one of my brickwalls James McGuire still remains a mystery, I had hoped he'd be living at home with his parents in Edenderry (allegedly) but still no joy.

Regards
Darren