1841 Census.

[blake1]

  Hi, On the England 1841 Censes...the printed copy tells the location of a person's birth, but on the original copy it only says Y or N ( in or out of the area ) So where does the birth area on the printed version come from?...as I have come across some that are wrong, but are correct on later
Census.
Cheers Ken.

[KGarrad]

The 1841 census doesn't mention place of birth!

The column asks "Whether born in county?", with the final column used for "I" (Ireland), "S" (Scotland), or "F" (Foreign).

Where is this printed version?

[avm228]

Ken, do you mean that when someone in (say) Cheshire is enumerated with a 'Y' in the Whether Born in County column, it is transcribed as born in Cheshire?

There is no other source for birthplaces in 1841.  The transcripts are derived only from the underlying census schedules.

[blake1]

Hello,  I'm talking about the printed information before you go on to look at the original.
I suppose who-ever transcribes from the original is taking for an example 'Y' for that person...to have been born in that immediate area at the top of the original page.
But in some instances the numeration area in say the city of Plymouth could be quite large or take it to the extreme 'Y' could be Devon rather than Cornwall. 
Ken 

[avm228]

It's not 'area', though, it is 'county'.

If a person living anywhere in Devon responded Y to "whether born in county" then any sensible transcription for the purpose of an index will say that the person was born in Devon.

If the relevant person had in fact been born in Cornwall then they (or the responsible householder on their behalf) should have responded N to that question.  Like everything else in the census it can only be as accurate as the information provided by the householder.  Many of us here have found that a Y in 1841 turns out not to be a particularly reliable indicator of the person's true birthplace.

The 'printed information' you refer to is a modern transcription created for whichever site you are using, in order to make the underlying source capable of being found on a digital search.  There is no magic in it; these transcriptions vary in quality between proprietors and between censuses, but in each case they are an attempt accurately to capture the relevant information on the underlying census schedule.

[stanmapstone]

The chief clerk of the GRO claimed that the birthplace tables were probably the most inaccurate of any of the census tables..... a great many people did not know in which county they were born. There was also a tendency to record the place of residence, or the earliest one which could be remembered, as the place of birth.
Stan

[blake1]

  Many thanks...
Completed.