Genealogy Chat

Nowadays we're very used to regularly filling out forms for all sorts of reasons, and so we fall into a pattern of what answers we put down. But that wasn't the case for most people in the nineteenth century, and so on the rare occasions when they dealt with officialdom they answered questions in whatever way seemed best, or suited their mood, or were what they happened to remember. And census returns were only completed every ten years, so it's not as if you're going to remember 'what I put down last time'! Also, remember that it wasn't necessarily the head of the household who gave the necessary information to the enumerator. Sometimes it would be an adult child still living at home. Sometimes it would be the grandparent whose memory was a bit doddery. Sometimes it would be a younger child who got the job because they were the one who could write. Sometimes it wouldn't even be a blood relative... The answer given would also depend on how the question was phrased. 'Where were you born?' is not the same as 'Where were you brought up?' And of course we only know where we were born because we were told about it long after the event itself!

E M Becoming a lamplighter at 'nearly 70' is quite feasible...........a not-too-strenuous occupation which would bring in a little money for someone who had left his previous employment. Reg

I don't suppose anyone above your rellie was born in Oxon on the 1891 image? I have come across a couple of examples where when the enumerator has gone home and copied his form into the big book, he has carried over the information from the family above onto the next family. Linda

If you'd like to give us name and year of birth.....we'll have a look for you. Not the Royal 'We'...just generalising, as I may not be online very long!! Reg

I am now putting flesh on my statistics. I have gathered a lot of info and am now fleshing it out with details collected from census, certificates and church records. I have come across an anomaly found on the 1881and 1891 census, they are.... in 1881 she was born in Birmingham, Wawickshire and in 1891 she was born in Banbury, Oxon. I am assuming that the enumerator, 1)did not listen......2)was deaf......3)had had enough and just wanted to go home, lol lol. I have found out that rellies occupations 'changed' according to the census info, like, Dock Worker one time and Stevedore the next, even though they mean the same thing. Or, Carpenter and Cabinet Maker. But with a little bit of common sense it all works out. Because I am unsure of where this rellie was born I do not know which route to go down.... Any ideas please. Kathlyn