why can't people decide where they were born?

[Little Nell]

1841
Charles Goodwin abt 1826 Middlesex
1851
Charles Goodwin 26 born: St Clement, Middlesex
1861
Charles Goodwin abt 1825 St Giles, Middlesex
1871
Charles Goodwin 45 head widower carpenter London
1881
Charles GOODWIN Boarder W 55 Long Acre,
1891
Charles Goodwin 65 abt 1826 Patient Holborn, London

no wonder I can't find a baptism!

[Chrissy Confused]

Hear hear :D:D

[Olde Crone Holden]

Nell

and why can't the enumerator LISTEN properly, when they tell him where they were born?

I've just been following a family, born in BlackBURN, but living in BlackPOOL. The enumerator can't get to grips with this and puts pob as Blackpool, as he (suspiciously) does for everyone on five pages.

Someone on Ancestry has submitted an alternative name for LARMIA FIELDING. They have submitted WOODHEAD for FIELDING. Doesn't appear to have occurred to them that LARMIA is a rather odd name, and is in fact LAVINIA!

OC

[Little Nell]

OC - !

Actually I have just found Charles Goodwin in 1851 and its not the chap I put above. I was puzzled as this chap was single and my chap married in 1849. I looked at my notes and found that his future bride was living one page away from Charles in 1841 so looked again and 1851 where Charles's father was and sure enough on the page before, there are Charles & Eleanor.

They are all at the same place - 48 Liquorpond Street (now Clerkenwell Rd, London) but there are lots of different households.

I checked another name on the same page as Charles didn't come up when I looked for him, then searched that name and looked for others on the same page.

and the reason I couldn't find them is that for some unaccountable reason their ages are given as 38 and 36 on the census, when they should have been 28 and 26!

[Peppie]

Huuby always swore he was born In Camden......:D Ended up having a tiny minor row in front of the registar when registering our eldests birth :D Guess who paid more attention to his cert than him and knew he was born in Islington.....

[Margaret in Burton]

My m i l always said she was born in Tatenhill Staffs, a village just outside Burton, her grandmothers place. She is no longer with us, but my f i l also insisted that was where she was born. She only ever had the short cert.

OH and I sent for the full cert and she was born in Burton town centre at the address where her parents were living. I know she was virtually brought up by her grandmother so that was probably why she thought she was born there.

Trouble is, f i l still insists she was born in Tatenhill even though I have shown him the cert, because that is what she told him. :(

[Janet]

This is not a modern phenonomon! I have one in a parish register in 1655 as coming from Clapham Northants but there has never been a Clapham in Northants. There is one in Bedfordshire, but the register for all its age states very clearly that it is Clapham Northants. I even had the archivist very puzzled by it, and she agreed the writing coild not have been clearer.

Janet

[BC]

I have one who gave his p.o.b. correctly for 3 census returns then, on the fourth one, he suddenly changed it to an area he had no known connection with - he didn't live or work there and it was not his wife;s p.o.b. either ! Unless he knew something I've not yet unearthed then either he was telling
' porkies ' or was having a sudden ' funny turn '. I have long been of the opinion they either said the first thing that came into their head or deliberately lied, perhaps on the basis of the census taker being an official.

[Little Nell]

I also have a very aggravating gt gt grandfather. First of all he is called William Williams. He has 5 different (but equally plausible as all parishes near eachother) places of birth and 4 different birth years.

He cleverly contrives to have a son Charles and stay in a village where there's another William williams with a son called Charles. This Charles (not mine) was born in the village next to the one my charles was born in, but they swapped and grew up in the other village.

William then manages not to die, despite my getting 2 dud certs. I've got a 3rd which could be him but its inconclusive as not registered by a relative and just says ag lab!

[Guy]

There are two reasons for misinformation accidental and intentional.

The accidental reason are that a person does not know the information at the time of being asked (forgotten, flustered) or is mis-heard.

The intentional reason stems from people's inherent distrust of authority and form filling.
"If the government want to know something it is to help them tax you."

As a result individuals will say often the first thing that comes in their head and agree with suggestions made.
If the clerk suggests Clapham is in Northants the subject will probably mutter in agreement.

The way to handle such inaccuracies is to records them, check to ensure they are inaccurate, record the true facts and move on.

Remember just because a village does not exist now it does not mean it has never existed. Many villages died in the plague, many villages were destroyed as sheep were more profitable others just dwindle into a couple of cottages.
Cheers
Guy

[Durham Lady]

I just wish my g g grandfather or whoever gave the 1851 census details knew where he was born, having "not known" on the only census he was alive to say on was no help to me!

[Janet]

It is also the way that the person has probably said it, so you have to try to say the name of the place, imitating the accent the person may have used. I do know where in Northants he actually meant, as he brought his family up in that place.

Janet

[Canadian Cousin]

I have a 3xg-gf who seemed to become more specific with each census (I realize that it was probably the enumerator who decided what to put down):

1841 - not in county
1851 - Middlesex
1861 - Middlesex, London
1871 - St. Andrews Holborn

If he hadn't survived until 1871, I would never have found his baptism and parents' names (he was James Collins, which must be fairly common). I was also helped by the fact that he was totally consistent with his year of birth (1799) from one census to the next - even in 1841, his age wasn't rounded down.

Sometimes we get lucky, I guess.

Tim

[Little Nell]

Yes, and sometimes we don't!

My heart sinks when it says "London, Middlesex"!

[Phoenix]

But I do bless the man who, after declaring his birthplace as Edgefield Norfolk on umpteen censuses, decided to say Gimingham in 1891. This was a tiny village miles away.. but it held the workhouse where he and his family were in 1841.
I have no idea where he was born - he was certainly baptised in Edgefield and the relevant workhouse records don't survive - but in pre-Ancestry days, I'd assumed the family were under a hedge in 1841, even going so far as counting all the households in the village and checking against the statistics pages (which are on the microfilms, but not on Ancestry) to be certain no households were omitted.

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

It might have helped me to trace my grandmother's parents if I was able to establish the birthplace of her mother in the 1891 census but I have never heard of 'Woothern' in Leicestershire or any place with a similar name.

Her maiden name of Booth was written as Bowarth on my grandmothers birth certificate......I have no idea of the accent.

[Pippa Doll]

It wasn't Wooden Box was it?

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

Thanks....I had noted that one Pippa, it is a possibility. I think I have read something about Wood box being named so because it was a toll and the money had to be put into a wooden box.

[Guy]

It might have helped me to trace my grandmother's parents if I was able to establish the birthplace of her mother in the 1891 census but I have never heard of 'Woothern' in Leicestershire or any place with a similar name.

Her maiden name of Booth was written as Bowarth on my grandmothers birth certificate......I have no idea of the accent.

Possibly Whatton between Bottesford & Bingham.
Cheers
Guy

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

Thanks Guy.....I will make a note of that one.