1911 Census

[coombs]

As said it is handy for us researching them. 

[Suzy W]

Goes to show how many were confused or just lied.

My family in question have a sorted mess.  My Great grandfather had a mistress, her census says she is married (no husband at home, because he is with his real wife on the night)

The mistress has entered the details right saying she had 8 children in total and only six living, with two down in the children died column.  But clearly she lied about being married for 17 years, and was still going by her maiden name. 

I think my great grandfather lost count on really how many children he did have, in the end there were 17 children between the two women (whom happen to be sisters) 

Crazy family, and so look forward to digging up more on this family.

Suzy W

[Chicago-Jones]

Some other reason why someone is not enumerated where they usually live (might apply in any UK or US census - I've seen examples in both).
1) If a person was Visiting someone else, they'd be enumerated with the person being visited as a Visitor.
2) If someone was living at a college, they'd be enumerated as part of the college student body.
3) If someone was at work (night shift, actor in theatre, ....) they'd be enumerated at that address since they were not at home when an enumerator appeared.  (I seldom located performers/artistes in censuses - they might have been traveling between engagements.  Or they were enumerated under a professiona/stage name rather than birth name (or their info was given by a colleague while performing on-stage or family member who did not know all the specifics).
I've also seen a college student enumerated twice - once at the college, and also with his parents (as "away at school").


Enumerators were often impatient, and did not talk directly to everyone in a household, relying on the "head" to provide all the info.  So sometimes the spouse or kids provided the wrong info (such as age, birthplace, ....) because they did not know, or deliberately lied (such as about real age if they looked younger).  I had one relative in Chicago whose age was never 10 years apart between censuses.

Chicago-Jones

[Sloe Gin]

Enumerators were often impatient, and did not talk directly to everyone in a household, relying on the "head" to provide all the info.  So sometimes the spouse or kids provided the wrong info (such as age, birthplace, ....)

I don't know about the USA, but for the UK censuses, forms were delivered to households a few days beforehand.  The enumerator merely collected the completed forms, and later transcribed the contents into a summary book.  He did not need to talk to everyone.

[Suzy W]

I guess we all are going to find some errors.

 I was wondering about the ladies who hid on census night (women rights movement)  There are going to be plenty of these brave ladies also left off on that night, but what a night mere for family researchers.

I know my mother hated census night, she would complain about the government wanting to know everything, right down to what toilet paper you use .  She had a sense of humor and I would love to know what she had put on the forms.

My great grandfather filled out the 1911 census, when it was meant to be his wife to fill out the details about the children.  He even left his thumb print on the side of the form, the ink must of been wet at the time, so that was a bonus, even if he did leave off some details.

Cheers
Suzy W

[Nick29]

I'm sure that there were similar errors made on previous censuses too, but this is the first time that we've actually been able to see the returns from households on a UK census.  On all previous censuses, all we get to see are the enumerators' returns.

[coombs]

I think in America in rural areas people had a month to compete the returns and in urban areas they had 2 weeks. But sometimes areas were enumerated days afterwards in the US.