Northern Ireland Religion question

[AllieElsokary]

I'm tracing my family back to Ireland, the North, Derry.
Our family were catholics and married catholics.
Something strange I have found and am wondering if anyone can shed some light on this.

I've found ancestors, either 3 brothers or a father and 2 sons all living just doors apart in a very small village.
3 separate houses.

In the census the religions noted in the houses of two of them are mixed. Catholic and Established Church.

In the 3rd house all members are Established Church.

This was Derry in first half of 1800's .

Isn't this quite unusual?

Could it maybe be that the 3rd house is the father and all in house are Established Church and the 2 sons houses that are mixed then married catholics? and it seems so. How unusual would that be do you think?

Anyone have any ideas on this

[aghadowey]

It's not uncommon to find mixed marriages over the years. If the census you refer to is the 1831 then it will say how many males/females & servants male/female as well as a breakdown of religions in household.

[AllieElsokary]

Yes this is the census. 1831.

Shame it doesn't give more detail like names and ages etc.

So do you think these 3 are all related being just doors apart?

Do you think that maybe we were Established Church and the house with all EC was the father and the sons with mixed are the sons?

It's looking like that to me.

[HughC]

This won't help you much, but I don't trust those censuses.

For a start, we don't know whether the householders filled in the forms themselves, or (if they couldn't read & write) got a neighbour to do it, or just dictated their answers to the enumerator.  Perhaps one field was left blank -- as I might well be tempted to do in Norn Iron when asked about my religion or politics -- and the enumerator filled in what he thought was appropriate.

People didn't use "printed" lettering but wrote in a cursive hand, often fairly illegible.
The enumerators were supposed to be literate, typically retired schoolmasters, but often they fell short of the ideal.  They may have made transcription errors when copying the forms to the ledgers.  The present-day transcribers may not have been able to read their handwriting, either.

I've also found that one can submit corrections till one's blue in the face, but nobody takes a blind bit of notice.  Irish attitudes to historical records haven't changed much, it seems.