Was place of birth self-reported in the 1851 census?

[M_ONeill]

I'm trying to figure out why my 3x great-grandfather had 'n.k.' - 'not known' listed as his place of birth in the 1851 England census, but  consistently listed it as 'Rock, Worcestershire' from 1861 onwards.

Could this have been ennumerator error, in 1851 and if so, were such errors common? Thanks to a local rootschatter parish register look up, I've confirmed that he was definitely baptised in the church at Rock, in 1805.

[CaroleW]

If he was at work when the enumerator called the info would have been given by another household member who may not have known his birthplace

[youngtug]

Like CarolW said;

Depends on who filled in the schedule, they may not have known his place of birth Some other reason could be to blame though such as the writing being  unreadable to the enumerator, etc,.
 https://ukcensusonline.com/census/1851/

[avm228]

Yes, presumably either the household schedule was returned with a blank or “not known” as to his birthplace - because whoever was filling it out didn’t know or forgot to enter it - or the enumerator couldn’t read the entry when attempting to transcribe it to the summary sheet because the writing was awful or covered by an inkblot or whatever.

Unfortunately the household schedules for censuses before 1911 do not survive, so we can only guess at what raw material the enumerator had to contend with.

[M_ONeill]

Thanks for the replies all! I figured that something like that was probably the most likely explanation, but I just wanted to make sure.