Help needed with deciphering nationality on 1911 Census

[RedPlume]

Hi,

I'm trying to work out the nationality of someone on the 1911 Census. It looks as though, there was originally a 1 which has been scribbled out and written as a 2 followed by n? and possibly 10. Or it's something else entirely?

Any help would definitely be appreciated,

Thanks!

[Zefiro]

I doubt that's the name of a country or other place name. It seems like a code. Are there more people in this register that have something similar written in the same spot?
Does the name of this person hint to a possible foreign descent?

[arthurk]

Hi RedPlume, and welcome.

The fact that this is in red ink is a strong indication that it was written by a checking clerk while the returns were being analysed, rather than anything the householder wrote to indicate nationality. Annotations are quite often seen on census pages, and what you see here, I think, is 240, with the first character being a mistake that's been crossed out.

Numbers in or next to the column showing the birthplace seem to refer to those born in a different county from the one they were enumerated in. I've never seen a list of them, but if you were to find someone else born in Berkshire but enumerated elsewhere, they'd probably have 240 against them as well.

(Occupations were also analysed with number codes, and lists of these are available online. This is quite useful with obscure job titles or bad handwriting.)

[JenB]

I think this is, in effect, a correction to the birthplace entry.

240 was the birthplace code for Middlesex.
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/articles/1911-census-birthplace-codes

The entry as written has Staines in Berkshire. However Staines was historically in Middlesex. So the person analysing the return has entered the code for the correct county of birth.

[arthurk]

Thanks for that, JenB. "Staines, Berkshire" didn't seem quite right, but I'm not very familiar with research round there and didn't check it out. The list is helpful - I thought there probably would be one somewhere.

[RedPlume]

Thanks Arthurk, JenB and Zefiro,

I really appreciate all of your responses to my query. I've only been researching my family for the last month so I learned a lot. Many thanks!

RP

[trish1120]

Welcome to Rootschat and if you need any help with your Tree we are always here to help

[sbny357]

Could it be just a poorly written “Dito” [“Ditto”], meaning same as the entries on previous pages? It would help to see the whole page to see how others are handled in that column.

Steve

[arthurk]

An interesting thought, Steve, but no. This is from the 1911 census, and it's the schedule (form) for a single household. If it was a version of 'ditto', there would need to be something on the same form for it to refer to.

JenB's answer at reply #3 is undoubtedly correct.