Genealogy Chat

How many of you have had ancestors who change 'born in' with each cencus? Iv got one ancestor who in 1881 claims she came from Ireland,,,in 1891 it changed to Newcastle and then 1901 it was Byker, Northumberland, I know Byker is just on the edge of Newcastle but its one hell of a long way from Ireland !!

Hi, I have lots of examples of this. Sometimes it's a genuine mistake. They were brought up in a place and think they were born there. In later censuses they correct this after finding out the truth. It also depends on who the ennumerator asked. A husband may believe his wife was born somewhere she wasn't. I forget my age sometimes so it's not surprising if they did. And of course sometimes they lied for their own reasons! Gwynne

Hi Gwynne, Yes , you're quite right....I cant remember what I had for dinner yesterday so I can see your point,

I have one gentleman in particular who not only changes his born in details, but also his age and his name keep changing. He's the most awkwardest perisher to keep trace of! I'm sure I'd have loved him.

I feel that I've seen enough of censuses now to simply expect the unexpected. Ages yoyo-ing up and down and mis-spellings of names are par for the course, however the ones that really get on my nerves are when there's been a change of surname or first name for seemingly no logical reason, well other than maybe lying. This last week, I did a search for a friend of mine who wanted to find her Walker family. I eventually found them under Walters, and it turned out to be not a transcriber error. In my tree, I have an Elias William Spears on the 1881 and 1901 census but for reasons I cannot fathom, he's Charles William Spears on the 1891 census! Whilst on the 1901 census, my great-uncles and great-aunts seem to have totally different first names altogether. These kind of idiosyncrasies (love that word) are the ones that infuriate me as they are harder to allow for.

My gr gr grandmother claims she was born in Pendleton, Salford. I found a baptism record at Manchester Cathedral, wrote off to Salford Register office for her birth certificate and they couldn't find the record. I later did a search and asked Max to do a check for her at the PRO and the only one we came up with for the year was born in Liverpool. I have now sent off for that certificate hoping it is the right person. I also have a couple of relatives that in one year were born in Manchester and another year say they were born in Salford. It is only over the border but with a name like Jones I need to know where to apply for the certificate. I am looking for my grandfather William Jones (middle name possibly Edward) born approx 1878 and there are loads of them in Manchester and Salford. Mel

I have a relative born 1859 who has recorded a different birth place in each succeding census from 1861 on. (I first found him in 1891 census and knew the entry was suspect since it also said his wife had the same birthplace and I knew that was wrong). When I did finally find his birth certificate after spending loads on searches etc I found that even his parents had fibbed about where he was born (either to the enumerator or the registrar). I would love to find his baptims record to see what it says there! Pam

Hi Claire My 3 x great grandad is sure he was born in Staffordshire, the trouble is he is not sure what part of it!! Firstly, Cauldon, then Mayfield, then Caulton. Then on the 1881 and 1901 census he knocks about 6 years off his age. I can't find him on the 1891 at all. Margaret

My problem is that my Great Grandfather didn't seem to know if he was born in England or France, depending where I look he was born in either Belper Derbyshire, (as was his Father and several of his siblings) or France (British Subject). As I have evidence that his Father went to France the year before he was born it was probably France unfortunately. I can find no trace so far of a record of his birth. Ann Glos

One ancestor changed his date of birth to be closer to his wife's, as she was a bit younger than he was. And: I was looking for my ancestors James and Susanna (on a Canadian Census). Didn't find them, but found their children, all the correct names and dates of birth. I wondered why the parents names were listed as Joseph and Emily. I finally found out 20 years later that Susanna passed away two years before the census was taken and James ended up marrying her sister the year the census was taken. I THINK because there were so many James Mumfords running around town, that he used the name Joseph, possibly a middle name, to avoid confusion. Would like to find out if his name was James Joseph or Joseph James.

My g grandma was registered as Jane Elizabeth, and thereafter became Elizabeth Jane. In the 1870's my g grandad died and she remarried a man 9 years her junior, and miraculously became 30 to his 34 on the 1881 census. Lie or error in transcription? Who knows, but if she was lying, she was stretching it a bit too far as my grandad was still living at home and he is recorded as 18, which means she would have given birth at 12. He was actually 20 at the time which makes me think she was lying, and he was helping her out a bit. Wonder if hubby knew she was actually 43??!

I was searching for another Walker ancestor on the 1891 census for my friend and noticed that this ancestor had seemingly got married again for the third time. What threw me initially was that all these children were listed that I couldn't account for. I felt that they had to be his step-children although they were listed with the Walker surname. I managed to trace his new wife back to the 1881 census and there were all these children, but with the surname Webster. When I looked again at the 1891 census, I saw what had been done; all the children were listed with the middle initial 'W' followed by the name Walker, so clearly the W was for Webster. Why they couldn't put Webster down as their name instead of Walker, followed by step-son or step-daughter, I'll never know.

Still working on this one, but great grandad was Francis Giles Sherwood, father John, and I have a record of John Sherwood marrying a Mary Giles (widow) a couple of years after Francis probable birth date, so I suspect that I may find the baptism to be for a Francis Giles.