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Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Topic started by: genseacher on Wednesday 09 June 10 20:01 BST (UK)
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Hi all
Just thought I would post in relation to ages of parents on the 1901/1911 Irish census.
I have found that the ages of people on both census are wrong.
Can anyone tell me why the ages of parents were not right.
Here are some examples of my rooney family
1911 census for my rooney family
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Inns_Quay/Chancery_St_/34030/
1901 census for my rooney family
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Inns_Quay/Chancery_Street/1278852/
Esther is 26 in the 1901 census and 32 in the 1911 census
can anyone explain this
I have more examples of other families in my genealogy
regards genseacher
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many ages are wrong on the census.. it seems remembering ages was not as important to some people at that time.
Some families do give very accurate ages, and younger children's ages tend to be more correct.
Shane
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This is nothing to do with Irish census records- it happens in many countries. Ages, and other information, in census records shoul be used as a guide to finding other records. Many people, particularly in early records were illiterate or weren't sure of their own birthdate so it's not surprising mistakes were made.
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thanks for replying
Yes I know age was not an issue please don't scold me
its just that records i have are not the right ones that all
Are the Family Search records more accurate like the irish civil reg records
thank you
genseacher
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There are 2 types of records on LDS site www.familysearch.org- submitted and extracted. The extracted ones should be more reliable than the submitted ones (although there can be mistakes) but the submitted ones do need to be treated with extreme caution (there are often conflicting submitted records).
Not sure I understand what you mean by "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all." Is it that you've found some possible census records but the ages don't seem to match up to the ages you thought (as your 1st post implied) or that you have been unable to find the people you are searching for in the 1901 and 1911 census?
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The Irish RC would not conform to the english rule, that why the ages are not right, and often when the census came to the house the Irish would give the wrong names. I know this because my late mum told me, my family come from County Donegal. Their were Rooney around Ballyshannon that play football for club Aodh Ruadh
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The Irish RC would not conform to the english rule, that why the ages are not right, and often when the census came to the house the Irish would give the wrong names. I know this because my late mum told me, my family come from County Donegal.
While that might be true in some cases the most common reasons for census mistakes are those I gave in reply #2.
My father-in-law (who was literate) coud never remember dates, including his own birthdate/year, and my father once nearly filled out a census form by putting my younger sister as older than me (she's 4 years younger) so mistakes are quite common.
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Hi
thanks so much for your reply
In relation to my quote "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all."
A friend done a look up for me in carlow bagnalstown in parish records
in relation to ellen dwyer and patrick dwyer and the info I received from them was that
Patrick Dwyer died in Ballymoon (carlow) 21st Nov 1906 aged 81 years
and his wife Ellen died 10th June 1906 aged 73 years
yet the census of 1901 have them as follows with their daughter (Ellen Dwyer her details are correct)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Carlow/Bagenalstown_Rural/Kilcarrig__part_of_rural_/1038590/
The age is so far out with the father Patrick Dwyer
Many thanks
genseacher
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I've found very few ages increasing by 10 years between the two census for my family, i've one relative who is 49 in 1901 and 71 in 1911, is this the largest increase in age between census?? all down to the Pensions Act, i've no doubt.
The census has helped identify a few more to add for the family tree but one of my brickwalls James McGuire still remains a mystery, I had hoped he'd be living at home with his parents in Edenderry (allegedly) but still no joy.
Regards
Darren
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Hi
thanks so much for your reply
In relation to my quote "its just that records i have are not the right ones that all."
A friend done a look up for me in carlow bagnalstown in parish records
in relation to ellen dwyer and patrick dwyer and the info I received from them was that
Patrick Dwyer died in Ballymoon (carlow) 21st Nov 1906 aged 81 years
and his wife Ellen died 10th June 1906 aged 73 years
yet the census of 1901 have them as follows with their daughter (Ellen Dwyer her details are correct)
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Carlow/Bagenalstown_Rural/Kilcarrig__part_of_rural_/1038590/
The age is so far out with the father Patrick Dwyer
Many thanks
genseacher
I have quite a few similar examples in my tree with age discrepancies of up to 10 years and more, one other point to remember is that when an elderly person died especially if their husband/wife had passed away before them it is unlikely that the next of kin registering the death knew exactly what age they were and probably made a 'best guess'
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Hi,
I have just been looking at the census information for a family in Co.Londonderry where a well-to-do lady's age went fron 39 in 1901 to 61 in 1911. The ages were clearly written in Form A.
Regards
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Am looking forward to filling in my census return next year... think I'll shave a few years off. Not too many, just 20 or so. ;D 8)
Maybe add these 20 onto my son so he can "prove" his age for his pension in the future!
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As a general rule in the 1901 census you will see ages 'rounded up' to the nearest ten so there are a disproportionate number of people aged 40, 50, 60 etc, probably because people just did not know their age.
However, in 1911 Old Age Pensions were introduced for those aged 70 and over and as a result this encouraged people to re-consider their age and this explains a lot of the discrepancies between ages in the two censuses.
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I meant to say that penions were introduced with the People's Budget of 1909 under the Liberal government for those over 70 years old but it was means tested. Those who applied often asked for a search of the 1841 and 1851 censuses that were held in the Public Record Office in Dublin. Some applicants provided evidence from local church records that is baptismal details and sometimes from places of work eg. army/civil service. Members of the Church of Ireland could also apply for a search of their church registers that were held in the PRO from the 1870s when the Church was dis-established and their registers before that date were considered to be public records.
Of course when the 1911 census was taken it provided an opportunity for older people near pension age to add a year or two especially as many would not have had a clue what year they were born in. Many people could date their age approximately if they knew that they were born before or after the night of the big wind [1839].
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Gortinanima
you are so right about those who applied for pensions. I just done some surfing today and found that the people who asked for a search of the 1841 and 1851 census are held in the national archives so the records are there hopefully -
regards genseacher