Genealogy Chat

Ages on any census can be up to 2 years out from the actual age.

Each person was asked to give their age in years .... except for babies under 1 year.

THEN the modern-day transcriber has changed that age to year of birth.


Depending on when someone was born during the year vs the date of the census .................. the age could be, as I said, up to 2 years out.


That's why we always says born ca. xxxxx


The only way to be sure of someone's birth date is to obtain the birth certificate.


In addition to this ......... ages on the 1841 census may be as much as 4 years out.

The enumerators of the 1841 were supposed to downgrade all ages over 15 to the nearest 5. So you may see several people in the same family alll aged 15 or 20, or so on.

However ...... some didn't do it, and you get the usual 2-year out inaccuracy.



To further add to the problem ..................... most of our ancestors were illiterate. They couldn't spell their own names, they very often didn't know how old they were or when they or their children were born. It just wasn't important to them. They often confused where they were born with where they had been living .................. or the enumerator didn't recognise the name of the tiny vill and asked for the name of a larger place.

As they were illiterate, they couldn't check what the enumerator wrote down ......... and he was often only slightly more literate.


Then you have the problem of accents!





The only way to be sure is ............. certificates!!



but never be amazed at what you find on a census!



and don't worry too much if ages are 1 - 2 years out




sylvia

Thanks for your advice. I have been through the census for various years but cannot seem to cross reference enough detail matches to convince myself that I have found the correct record. I have just subscribed to another site which may be a little better at narrowing the details I do have to hand.I have my G Grandfathers name on his marriage cert so I am assuming that he was known as John Francis rather than Francis John. I have searched with the names reversed but need to be more convinced

thanks once more for your help

I would only suggest that you get as many sources as possible to cross-check before sending for certificates, which are the expensive part of the exercise.

For example, trace through two or three censuses to see if the place and date of birth, the wife and children all progress as expected.

The only way to know if any are correct would be the get the certs

My Gt G/dad on the census & his marriage was known as William but it was only when we managed to find a birth that it turned out his name was Samuel & William was his middle name

If you want some help you can post the details on here and see if anyone can manage to find the correct person for you.

Christine

I have traced some of my tree but I am having problems with making sure I have the correct person before I enter it on my tree or purchase certificates. Can anyone give me some pointers as how to try and whittle down the possibility even further. I have tried cross referencing with some effect but I am getting so frustrated as I am now at a dead end and do not know how to carry on. Just when I think I have the correct person something just isn't right e.g the place of birth or the year of birth. AAAArrrgggggghhh. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.