Do you think you have ancestors who just lied on their forms?

[Stanwix England]

I'm not asking anyone to look as I've asked for help with this individual before - I'm just thinking aloud really.

I've been looking tonight at one of my brick walls, it's someone I've posted about here in years past with no success - so I know it's not just my terrible finding stuff ability.

It occurs to me that maybe this particular relative was less then honest about their past for some reason and that's why I can't trace them.

For example, they give their birth location as one thing on most census returns and then for some reason give a totally different county on the 1911 census. It's definitely them because other details and people match up. I can see the original image so it's not a case of something being mistranscribed, and it was them who signed the form so it wasn't like someone else entered their details wrong.

It seems like such an odd thing to do, why state a totally different county? Where they afraid of authority and felt the need to hide for some reason? Was it some sort of odd joke?

Have you ever felt like one of your ancestors did something like this?

[louisa maud]

I suspect many did, reasons only known to them

Louisa Maud

[Finley 1]

I know I have 
he cannot con me --- my 2nd gg' was illegitimate but professes on his marriage cert to actually knowing that his father was a SURGEON  well why not...


maybe I am wrong

xin

[Nanna52]

Many in my families have very elastic ages, increased or decreased to suit their needs. 
My great aunt and uncle both killed off their father when they married, he outlived my great aunt. 
In the 1851 and 1861 my 2 X great grandfather was born in places many miles apart, but his age remained the same, 60 both times.
Not his fault but my cousin was declared killed in action during WW1 and around three months later declared alive and a POW.

Did they purposely lie or just make a mistake?  I have no real idea.

[wivenhoe]

If this is a brick wall it might be worth looking at it from the opposite direction.

At 1911, with the signature of person, you have good reason to believe that person is the author of the information....self-recording. Person sees what information is recorded.

For earlier Census records......who is the author of the details recorded about person?

Unless you know who gave  information that you see on earlier Census records , it might be that the 1911 birthplace is correct, and earlier Census records are incorrect.

The Census records you have...what span of person's life do they cover......infancy...childhood....adolescence...marriage /s.....old age?

Have you located a birth / baptism record for person?

[brigidmac]

Thinking outside box too
Were the counties adjacent had borders changed.?

Maybe he found out his true birth place .my grandfather thought he was born in Wales where he grew up but had actually been born in England and may only have learnt when he got his birth certificate.

Also I have a great uncle who was born in Ireland  1906 most of  his relatives came from small village in Scotland ..I thought it was a mistake but it was consistent and eventually a friendly rootschatter found his ( unmarried ) parents on an electoral roll in Belfast .

[Romilly]

I have ancestors who have different Occupations and ages on every form that was completed in their lifetimes!

And I'm still convinced that my Paternal Grandfather took on a different name when he Married my Grandmother in 1893...

Reason being, - he's nowhere to be found before then!

Romilly.

[IgorStrav]

I think it's a combination of misunderstandings, white lies and full-on lies.

One greatx2 grandfather keeps giving different birthplaces in the censuses - all close, but not one single location - so I've never found a baptism for him to pin down his parents. 

I assume that he lived with his parents in various places and never knew exactly where they were when he was born.

A great grandmother consistently gives age matching birthdate of c 1850/51 - but I've never found her registration or baptism, although there is another very tempting person of the same name born in 1846 who might be her.  Did she just not know how old she was?  Did she match her age to her 'husband'(s), neither of whom she actually married, so far as I can find?

Who knows.....

[antiquesam]

I'm sure many people made things up or didn't know for certain. My maternal grandmother lied about her age on her second marriage and my father gave the name of his uncle as his father when he married. As a father wasn't named on his birth certificate he either wanted to keep up appearances or there was a little incest in the family.