1861 Canada Census - Error regarding gender?

[Lisa in California]

My ancestors are on shown on the 1861 Etobicoke, Ontario census.  The parents are listed first, followed by children in the following order, ages: 13, 9, 8, 5, 1, and 3.  Since the 3 year old is shown after her younger sibling, it was suggested that "enumerator missed her when he was copying the entries onto the form until after he had entered the information for" the infant.  All of the children were recorded as females.

Question:  Since there is a chance that the enumerator may have made a mistake when copying the entries, is it possible that the infant (the one year old) could have been a male?  Obviously, mistakes were made on census returns, but would anyone know if mistakes were made regarding genders?  Thank you for reading this post.  Lisa

[Jacquie in Canada]

If I recall correctly, I have come across mistakes in the gender column before so it is possible.

Jacquie

[Lisa in California]

Hi Jacquie:

It is good to know it is possible.  Thank you for your help, Jacquie.

Lise

[Lisa in California]

PS  I forgot to mention    the one year old is simply recorded as "infant of J.S." (the father's initials), it doesn't give the infant's name, so there's no way to determine if the enumerator made a mistake.

[carol8353]

Is this baby definitely 1 year old,or could it be 1 month or even 1 week and therefore not named yet?

[Lisa in California]

Hi carol8353:

Because the children's years of birth vary with almost every record (when we've been lucky enough to find marriage and death records, and looking at other census returns), we cannot say that it isn't for my greatgrandmother (who supposedly was born near the end of 1861), but

with the help of other wonderful RootsChatters, we've found a list of burials where my greatgrandparents are buried.  There are five burials (prior to 1900) for people with her maiden name and one of the burials is for a male, buried July 30, 1861.  If it's possible that a mistake was made on the census return, then the burial could be for her brother.

Thank you for your interest in this thread.    It does make me wonder the true age of the child on the census.

Note:  I just took another look at the census.  "Births in 1860: 1, female"    
Now I am wondering if my ggm's records are wrong and she was born in 1860. 

Thank you, carol8353 - you've found another clue.