Bowen's of Kerry

[eirian]

Hi

I'm wondering if anyone can help me. I have my great greatgreat grandfather a John Bowen residing in Kerry from at least 1841.

However it gets a bit confusing as in alternate cencus-es he lists his DoB and PoB as 1811 in Chuchstoke and 1813 in Kerry.

I know it is the same person in each census as his address, wife and children are the same in each return.

Can anyone shed any light on this, I understand that some of the returning officers were slightly off with recording dates of birth and places etc, but it seems strange that these flip back and fore...or if anyone has any info on this family I would be grateful to learn it

Many thanks

Eirian

[david64]

Could be any number of reasons. I have plenty of place discrepancies in the census, even going over about 100 miles.

Some problems could be:

Person who filed in the schedule filled it in wrong
Person providing data didn't know the right place
Person may have thought the census was prying and gave them the wrong info

Also people will often say the name of a big settlement near their POB or they will not really know which parish they were born in. I have seen this in particular in Llanrhaiadr ym Mochnant, which is very rural and if you look at parish maps you will find there is a parish called Pennant, part of which is next to Llanrhaiadr, then there is another part that is totally independent of that in Llanrhaiadr and there is another part, which is a tiny, unconnected island in the parish of Hirnant.

If you take Kerry and Churchstoke, they are right next to each other. He could have been born somewhere rural in between the parishes and not known which to put.

[Poppyjoey]

Hi, Just seen your post. Did you find your GGG Grandfather? I'm interested as I have been trying to find Anne Bowen born Churchstoke 1790. After reading your post it looks like Kerry is another option to Churchstoke, and also she could be part of your ancestor's family.

Regards
Julie

[david64]

Kerry baptisms are in the IGI. You can find them here. Note, only search by forename and year as the surnames before 1812 are entered as the father's 1st name.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/IGIBatchNumbers.htm#PageTitle

[Poppyjoey]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I had never  gone into the IGI by this route, and it's really handy to know about it.

I knew there was something about a patrynomic system in Wales - I assume it's what you've said about the father's first name?

I have to go out now, but I can have a good look later on both at Churchstoke entries and the Kerry ones.

Thanks again, this is really helpful for the Welsh part of my research.

Julie.

[david64]

The Churchstoke ones are not in the IGI at all. They are at Shropshire Archives and I believe the Mont. Gen. Soc. has transcribed them, but they are not yet published.

Re. patronymics, it was generally only used in Montgomeryshire before 1650, so what the IGI have done with all those records is unhelpful.