Bee,
Assuming you have access to the detailed census pages, here is the William Purvis/Margaret Anderson down through the censuses.
C1841 ( Steve already got this one)
Ref HO (for Home Office) 107 (indicating the 7th census, but 41 the first census to record people, rather than just count them) Piece 834 Book 33 Folio 3 Page 11.
I read "May" as Mary.
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C1851 Ref Piece 2413 Folio 400 Page 11
Family at Blackheddon, near Stamfordham. This time Ann Anderson is recorded as William's sister-in-law.
Robert is 12, born Bothal *
Ancestry has the family indexed as PARRIS
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C1861 Hebburn, Co Durham
Ref 3796-51-1... Robert not with them.
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I noticed that Robert on C1871, (5125-56-8) with wife Isabella (Dodds) and 2 dtrs was a Cartman.
His dad seems to be have been a traditional agricultural labourer, moving around quite a lot.... maybe the annual "hirings" caused him to look farther afield... was it his son Robert's marriage cert that had his occupation as "cartman". Did Robert also declare himself to be a cartman ?
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* Bothal today is a tiny hamlet, between Morpeth and Ashington, with, I think not a single shop/pub etc, but a very old church and castle.
On Steve's point about censuses having parishes for where born, instead of " birthplaces".... many census enumerators, especially the early ones did this....they recorded the "parish of birth" and not the actual "place of birth", mainly because as new communities quickly sprung up, folk were born in new and unknown places, with no "sway", so the "important" parish was recorded.
C1851 has Robert born "Bothal".... i would hazard a guess he was not born in the village of Bothal, but at someplace within the boundaries of the parish of Bothal.
Trivia Angle... my g/f was born in 1875 in fledgling colliery village of New Hartley... 1881 and 1891 censuses have him born at Earsdon. But the enumerators did not mean the "Village" of Earsdon, they meant the territory of the parish of Earsdon !
New Hartley lay in the "township" of Seaton Delaval, which itself lay in the ancient Parish of Earsdon.
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Stop me somebody !! LOL
Michael Dixon
Kenton ( very near where Robert and Isabella were on C1881)