Genealogy Chat

Jane - The census are accurate in that the enumerator would write down what he was told, however in those days not everyone knew how old they were. They didn't keep track of it like we do today and so its quite common for there to be a difference of upto ten years between ages. Somtimes couples lied about their ages to each other and that is often reflected in the census or they simply didn't like to reveal how old they were to a stranger (the enumerator). If you want to be sure you have the right people then look at the other details. Were they born in the same place? Do they have uncommon names that are unique to the area in which they live? Its not an exact science, often you have to look at many forms of evidence such as birth, marriage and death certificates, wills, newspapers etc before you can ultimately be sure. Currently the only people to put the 1891 census online (in part) are Ancestry. They have put up images for ten counties but only indexed Oxfordshire. It isn't cheap either, to view the images you need an ancestry subscription at £70 a year. S&N Genealogy supplies have many counties on CD for sale. Some small areas have been indexed and those indexs are viewable online, there are too many to list but perhaps if you are able to visit the newsgroup soc.genealogy.britain someone there will be able to help with the county your interested in.