Genealogy Chat

How common is it that people are inconsistent with their place of birth in census returns? Thanks Caz

One of my rellies was fairly consistent with his inconsistency - only the same place of birth on two censuses. Still don't have a clue were he was actually born. Anna

Hi Caz, In my experience it's very common.I have one relative who is down as a different place of birth on every census, Two different counties in one case. Makes life very difficult. Linda

I'd say the level of consistency is on a par with the way they spelled their names/occupations and any other info. It can lead you completely up the garden path - I had one relative who says Langley on a census, when it was Langham, a village miles away. Another gt gt grandmother had Farnham on the census and I was looking in Surrey (that is the county where she lived most of her life) when in fact it was Farnham Royal in Bucks. My husband's dodgy Carters who seem to have started off as McCarthy have Marylebone/Islington and Southwark/Bow/Islington as birth places in 2 different censuses. Sometimes its an enumerator's error. Generally the nearer the census date is to the person's birth, the more likely it is that the info is correct. nell (born in Redhill but only been back twice - that's just where the maternity hospital was)

My mum thought that she was born in Gillingham until we started this as she had never seen her birth cert and believed her mother! (She was a nurse at the hospital she was born at as it turns out - you would think she would know!) My mum was born in Chatham so she has lied on my birth cert and every official document she has ever filled in. She was born in 1957! Pippa

Seems to make a difference how far away from their place of birth they were living. The further away, the more likely they wouldn't mention the small village that was difficult for the enumerator to spell, because he had never heard of it. ''Where's that near?'' ...and the nearest large town would get written down instead. My very favourites are the ones where they actually give their street address in the place of birth column!! (None in my own family though lol) Sarah

My great-great-grandmother gave her place of birth as Basingstoke on one census and 'Newington Butts, Surrey' on the next one. Still haven't worked out which is right. Apart from that, though, the worst offenders in my family are the Welsh ones - each place has at least two spellings, a Welsh one and an English one - and the London ones, some of whom give a slightly different area of London each time, e.g. Kingsland, Dalston, Hackney, Islington, all for the same person! Kate.

I sometimes wonder whether the variations in reply are down to the difference in sense between 'where do you come from?' and 'where were you born?' My g-grandfather said Maidenhead on a couple of censuses, and Ilford on another. I thought it was unlikely someone would claim to be born in Ilford if they weren't, whilst Maidenhead might be deemed to be a bit posher. So I tracked down the birth in Barkingside. In favour of his majority reply, he seems to have spent most of his young life in the Maidenhead area. The distance-away bit also makes sense. Looking at some censuses today... when the family was in Norfolk they'd specify the village. When they moved to Yorkshire, they just said 'Norfolk' - just as you sometimes see 'Scotland' or 'Ireland' as a response. Spelling also causes problems. A great uncle who was born in Lymington, Hants, was noted down as Leamington in the 1861 census. Mis-heard, I suppose, and mayby the enumerator didn't know there was a Lymington, so wrote what it sounded like, and that he had heard of. Christine

Thanks for all the advice guys! Caz

One other thing to be aware of : I have found rellies working as servants and obviously the census form has been completed by the householder. On these the place of birth is often given as the place the employer actually knows as the place where said servant came from. For example I had one chap born in Chelsea (son of a couple in service) At some point they moved back to Lincolnshire and the son is shown at 19 as being from the town local to the farm he was then working on.