Genealogy Chat

Hi there I have a branch of my tree which came to light from our family plot in the graveyard from the town where most of the family are from. On doing a bit of researching it was definite that these people were living in the area during the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census. Two of this couples children died at the ages of 4 and 10 and the deaths were registered by their father but an X marked his "signature" and the certificate was witnessed by another person other than the registrar. I take it this means that he couldn't write so would this mean that he would never have completed his families details on the census when requested hence why I couldn't trace them or was there the option of someone doing that for them?? It is the only logical explanation I can find for them not being on the census!! Any other ideas?? Cheryl

Hi Cheryl The most probable explanation for you not being able to find your ancestors on census's is that their surname has been recorded incorrectly, i have found this with lots of my ancestors and have found them eventually. If you leave details of the people you are looking for i.e names, dates and places of birth maybe someone on here may be able to track them down for you. Regards Sharon

Thanks Sharon There is an option when you are searching Scottish records on scotlandspeople to use soundex but this didn't bring them up on the census and the only other way to spell Thomson is Thompson and that didn't work. Which was why from reading the children's death certificates it made me think that because their father obviously couldn't write that this might be the reason!!! Best wishes Cheryl

Many people were unable to read or write at the time of the 1881 census. I can't imagine that the enumerators would have collected a blank form and done nothing about it. They must have been instructed to fill in the form on information from the household - if they didn't know how to spell the names they were told, then they would have just had to make a guess. It's not surprising in these circumstances that spellings were variable on the more unusual names.

I have got members of the same family in the same house spelt three different ways on one census.

Hallo Cheryl I feel that your relatives are there - virtually everyone got recorded. You can't find them because they are not recorded under the names you are looking for. You would be amazed how differently names are translated through bad spelling, inability to read handwriting, problems with pronunciation etc. I found my Smoothy relatives in 1901 by searching for my grandfather's first two names + his date and place of birth. He was incorrectly listed - with the rest of his family - as Lenorthy! Similarly, I have relatives with a surname I still don't have a definitive version of - it's Maling on a wedding certificate, Meling in the parish birth records and Mealing in two censuses - plus Malins in parish marriages. And I don't know how it was pronounced either! To help you - I would suggest trying Tomson or Tompson, and possibly Jonson/Johnson, or just try first names. Good luck. Helen.

Quite a few of my rellies from Skye weren't able to write, (as X is used when registering births, deaths e.t.c.) but they are on the 1881 census, so I assume that provisions must have been made for illiterate people during the census

So far as I can tell it was not a case of an enumerator leaving a form to be collected, but of going round to get the information. I have reason to believe that my great aunt, then aged 7, may have been the informant on some of the information in 1881, as she is the only one of the three children to get her proper two names. Her sisters are given their pet names. Her father certainly couldn't write, as he signed his marriage certificate with an X. However he may have spoken to the enumerator. The census had him being born in Llangathen, Denbighshire. There is no such place. He could have been born at Llangathen in south Wales, but much more likely in Llangollen, which was indeed in Denbighshire. No doubt a Geordie enumerator had some difficulty in understanding a north Wales accent. Stan

Just an idea but have you tried the English census? Names can be spelt wrong as pointed out above. My ggrandad Ferguson was transcribed as Roban on LDS. Long story as some on here know. Perhaps you need to see the original transcripts for the area?