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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: maria087 on Wednesday 17 April 13 06:48 BST (UK)

Title: census relationships oddity
Post by: maria087 on Wednesday 17 April 13 06:48 BST (UK)
unsure what to make of this!From the 1851 census-

DUNLOP, James   Head   Married   M   30   1821
DUNLOP, Anne   Daughter   Unmarried   F   32   1819
DUNLOP, James   Grand Son      M   6   1845

Piece: 590 Folio: 37 Page: 11      Registration District: Irvine Civil Parish: Dundonald
Municipal Borough: Irvine Address: Fullarton Street, Dundonald, Irvine
County: Ayrshire
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: youngtug on Wednesday 17 April 13 07:10 BST (UK)
Sorry, I misread that. Not right is it, must be a mistake somewhere. Anne cannot be the daughter of James.
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: KGarrad on Wednesday 17 April 13 07:25 BST (UK)
I would hazard a guess that James age has been mistranscribed! ;D
What does it say on the original?
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: Mike in Cumbria on Wednesday 17 April 13 08:42 BST (UK)
The only way I can make it fit, assuming only one mistake is something like this.

DUNLOP, James   Head   Married   M  50   1801
DUNLOP, Anne   Daughter   Unmarried   F   32   1819
DUNLOP, James   Grand Son      M   6   1845

All that would have needed is a 5 transcribed as a 3 somewhere along the line
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: youngtug on Wednesday 17 April 13 09:24 BST (UK)
Sometimes I have seen the head of household not being the oldest family member, so maybe there is a father or mother of Ann, and James, assuming that he is her brother. This may not be the case and with other theory,s the only way to tell is to check the household and family.
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: andycand on Wednesday 17 April 13 09:33 BST (UK)
Hi

You need to look at the original image of the census (available from Scotlandspeople) to see what the actual information is. Ancestry has transcribed James age 30 as 'son about head' (head) This could be a poor transcription of 'son of the head' but without looking at the image it is guesswork.

Andy
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: maria087 on Wednesday 17 April 13 13:47 BST (UK)
Thanks everybody who contributed.  What fun this is.......I feel like Miss Marple.
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: Mike in Cumbria on Wednesday 17 April 13 14:11 BST (UK)
Thanks everybody who contributed.  What fun this is.......I feel like Miss Marple.

Yes but do you have access to Scotlandspeople? We've seen the transcript and it would be good to know what the original looks like. Can you post a clipped section?

Mike
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: pinefamily on Sunday 21 April 13 03:04 BST (UK)
Sometimes I have seen the head of household not being the oldest family member, so maybe there is a father or mother of Ann, and James, assuming that he is her brother. This may not be the case and with other theory,s the only way to tell is to check the household and family.

If it turns out that the age is correct, it might pay to check next door. The father could be there.
Mind you, it's not as if it's the first transcription error from ancestry. ::)
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: eadaoin on Tuesday 23 April 13 23:17 BST (UK)
In 1911 Census of distant cousins, the grandchildren are described as niece/nephew..
I think was happened was that the son of the house actually filled in the census ( so they were his niece/nephew), then he put his mother as Head of the House, and himself as son.

As we've a lot of knowledge of this family, who were born in a variety of counties, it was easy enough to figure out, but without background knowledge it would have been a nightmare.

eadaoin
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: Lisajj on Thursday 25 April 13 16:23 BST (UK)
I think it was on the 1861 or 71, but there were 2 girls aged 6 and 8 who were described as "daughter in law"!  Turns out it should have been "step-daughter"
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: suey on Thursday 25 April 13 16:56 BST (UK)
In 1911 Census of distant cousins, the grandchildren are described as niece/nephew..
I think was happened was that the son of the house actually filled in the census ( so they were his niece/nephew), then he put his mother as Head of the House, and himself as son.

As we've a lot of knowledge of this family, who were born in a variety of counties, it was easy enough to figure out, but without background knowledge it would have been a nightmare.

eadaoin

I have a similar example, the mother is head of house but the eldest daughter must have filled out the form beacuse there is an uncle, aunt, sister (husband away so appears with married surname) and various other relations, in all five different surnames within one family household  ::)
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: pinefamily on Thursday 25 April 13 23:44 BST (UK)
I think it was on the 1861 or 71, but there were 2 girls aged 6 and 8 who were described as "daughter in law"!  Turns out it should have been "step-daughter"
That's not so much an error as a different terminology. The term "step" didn't come into vogue until later. Until then, what we know as "step" (and I don't like that term personally) was for our ancestors "in law".
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: Lisajj on Friday 26 April 13 08:29 BST (UK)
Still took a while to work out though :-)

Yes, I think a list of terminology would be good when it comes to relationships.
Title: Re: census relationships oddity
Post by: pinefamily on Saturday 27 April 13 00:32 BST (UK)
Relationships get even more confusing when you go back to the 17th and 18th centuries. The word "cousin" applied to cousins, nieces and nephews! Then there is the term "kinsman". With that one you need to search around; at least you know they were related.