Decipher possible enumerator error

[hallmark]

Catherine remarried after Bernard Irons death and is listed as Catherine Johnson, widow, living in Weaverham Cheshire with Kenerley family in 1861 (RG9/2601)

Does anyone know if there are Ireland parish records for Ballinasloe for late 1700s anywhere?

Religion?

[JenB]

Hi JenB Apols if I have wasted your time but I only asked for suggestions on place name. I didn't expect anyone to do any searches for me.

You haven't wasted our time, but in questions like this the immediate reaction of many of us is to want to look at the original from which the transcription was taken. So we spent time looking for Dooley and/or Irons instead of Johnson 

[lizdb]

Like Jen I spent a lot of time looking for Dooley and variant thereof, and then Irons, plus looking for Catherine and Katherine.

It isn't necessarily a case of an 'enumerators error', as in your title, but a case of the person transcribing and indexing the information making a best guess at reading the enumerators writing. For us to make suggestions as to what the correct name of the place might be, we need to see the original of that writing, to see if we can make something of it that IS a place in Ireland, as you yourself have said the attempt by the transcriber resulted in something that wasn't a place in Ireland.

[JenB]

Just one other point, then I'll go away 

re 'Enumerator error' - no, not necessarily!

The enumerator simply copied/tried to copy what was written on the original householders census form.

The form was intended to be filled in by the head of the household, in this case a Martha Kennley.

Probably Martha asked Catherine where she was born, Catherine told her, and Martha did the best she could to write down what she thought Catherine had said.

Then the enumerator, after he'd collected the form, had to copy down what Martha Kennley thought Catherine had said. If Martha's writing wasn't too clear then more errors could creep in.

If you think about it in that way you can see how easy it could be for a slightly unusual place-name to become completely garbled.

[Gadget]

Hi JenB Apols if I have wasted your time but I only asked for suggestions on place name. I didn't expect anyone to do any searches for me.

You haven't wasted our time, but in questions like this the immediate reaction of many of us is to want to look at the original from which the transcription was taken. So we spent time looking for Dooley and/or Irons instead of Johnson 

As JenB says, it's best to give us as much info as you have as we do like to check the handwritten entry.

I found the Irons/Johnson marriage soon after Jen gave the ref to the other thread. It was the only one Kent 1830 that fitted. I was then called away.

I've checked for a baptism in Ireland but haven't found anything so far.

Gadget

[Annette7]

Wonder if it's the English enumerators version of 'Ballinanagh, which is in Cavan (now seems to be known as Ballinagh).

Annette