Genealogy Chat

I found this interesting piece of information on Durham Online Why are there errors in the census?: There were many opportunities for error in a census. First, the person answering the census questions was quite likely to be a child, as the child might be the only person in the house who could read and write. The child, however, did not necessarily know the correct answers or correctly understand the answer given to him or her orally by the parents or did not know how to spell the birthplaces they quoted to him. Next, did you know that the census images available to us today are actually transcriptions made by the enumerator from "schedules" filled out by somebody in the household? If the enumerator did not correctly read the schedule filled out by the householder, another error develops. Also, when the enumerator was copying from the schedules to his enumerator's book, he might skip a line and miss somebody. (We suggest you visit BritishGenealogy.com, which provides an excellent description of how the census was taken, why the census images available today are actually transcriptions, and how to reference a piece/folio.) Lastly, of course, we are offering transcriptions, and if we could not read the enumerator's handwriting because it was poor, the ink had faded, or the page had been damaged, then we may also introduce errors. For all these reasons it is important to compare the results of a census to all other available records for continuity.

Thanks for that, Linda That's interesting, especiallythe bit about the child answering the questions and being the only literate one within the household. That may explain why I have one family who's surname changes spelling 5 times over 30 years. If one of the children was answering the questions, they'd only be able to give the spelling they'd been taught, which may not necessarily be the correct one Lou

Until people needed their names written down, who's to say the "correct" spelling? As to why there are errors, there are errors because like all other records, censuses are made by human beings. To err is human. The problem with censuses (and other records) as far as genealogists are concerned, is not that there are errors, but identifying that there are errors and working out the correct answers. If you find a relative on a census who says he was Tim Bloggs born in Coventry in 1852 and he was really Jim Briggs born Daventry in 1857 you will never get his birth cert! nell

Nell Maybe that's why I'm struggling with birth certs. My gggrandfather changes his birthplace from Derby to Birmingham and the spelling of his name (oh, not to mention his age!) with every one. I know he's there somewhere but where???? lou

Also apart from the ages changing, I find birthplaces change possibly because it was "posher" to say you were from a certain area rather than the neigbouring well known slum area!

Oh cheers Heather Add another one to the problem of where this guy was actually born. I'm not even sure he was...I think the aliens dropped him off when they were picking up another batch of everyone's missing rellies. His birth is actually registered one of Jupiter's moons! Lou