Place of birth changes

[Homerdaddy]

I have been finding that some of my ancestors appear to show different places of birth on consecutive census returns and I wondered why.

Then I realised that I cannot remember what I put on my last census return.

For instance someone could have been born in hospital in Newport but their parents lived in Rogerstone.
Would they put their place of birth as Newport or Rogerstone or Monmouthshire or Gwent or Wales? And would they remember in 10 years time what they put?

Homerdaddy

[genjen]

Hello,

This is absolutely normal.

A person's entered place of birth will depend on who actually filled in the form or gave the information to the enumerator. So a child's birthplace would be given by his/her parent and might differ from that which she/he gives later as an adult.

As an example, I was born in Middlesbrough but moved away from there when I was just a year old. It wouldn't be out of the ordinary if I had believed that I was born in the village where I grew up.

I also think that I could have been guilty of failing to fill in at least one census form...I have no memory of doing it when I lived in Edinburgh in 1971 and certainly didn't realise how important it was until much later.

Does that help at all with your question?

Jen

[Homerdaddy]

Hi
Thanks for the response. We don't realise that we may be confusing someone in perhaps 2 hundred years in the future!

Regards

Homerdaddy

[Plummiegirl]

Another thing that can happen is that the village or hamlet that a person was born in later due to encroachment by larger town expanding becomes just an outer area of a larger town.

So someone may have been born in Littlevillage which is near to Bigvillage and as Bigvillage expands Littlevillage is just a smaller part of Bigvillage.

Rather like London and Greater London/Manchester and Greater Manchester.

Does that make sense, it does to me 

[Nick29]

What's really annoying is when people only feature on two censuses, and put a different place of birth on each !

Which one do you believe ?  The first, the second, or neither ?   

[genjen]

Another thing that can happen is that the village or hamlet that a person was born in later due to encroachment by larger town expanding becomes just an outer area of a larger town.
So someone may have been born in Littlevillage which is near to Bigvillage and as Bigvillage expands Littlevillage is just a smaller part of Bigvillage.

Rather like London and Greater London/Manchester and Greater Manchester.
Does that make sense, it does to me 

Makes perfect sense to me. I tried to say something of the sort myself but it came out as nonsense so I deleted it. I'm glad you were able to express the idea sensibly!

[Plummiegirl]

My g/g/grandmother was born in Mountnessing (essex) and on all her census entries this is what she has stated, however on 1 she has said Ingatestone (essex).

Having taken the time to go and get my injections updated and have my passport stamped I dared to take that darkened route to the other side of the deep and dangerous Thames from South London (Plumstead).

Well, I found that Mountnessing is a small village (I saw only a row of 4 shops, 1 of which was closed) but Ingatestone was the next large village/market town, was bustling with shoppers.   They are only about 1/2 mile apart and if someone built a few houses inbetween they would be the same town.  (Oh and the butchers was amazing - bought quite a bit of meat etc. there.  People seemed to be coming from miles around to visit this one little shop).


I also think that Ingatestone was the registration district at the time, so yes she was born in Mountnessing but was registered in Ingatestone.

It might be useful when people change where they were born, to see if the different places are actually quite near to one another.  I have done this by googling a place name, looked at any maps etc. and have found this to be the most common reason for differing place names.

[Sloe Gin]

We don't realise that we may be confusing someone in perhaps 2 hundred years in the future!

When it comes down to rural areas, the more modern censuses will be even less helpful, as the majority of people will have been born in hospitals, sometimes miles from home ....

[Galium]

Now and again I have come across a married woman being given the wrong birthplace - presumably because the husband filling in the form has assumed she was born in the place where she lived when they met.

The correct birthplace may then show up on a later census when the woman is widowed and fills in the form herself.