Mistakes

[robd]

As I am new to the job of trying to trce my ancestors in Scotland can someone please clarify a few points.
How accurate are the birth year/ages given in the census returns. I notice on the scans form Scotlands People most appear to be in the same handwriting on a page so I assume they were filled out by the census collector.
I found a 1891 census return for my G Grandfather which showed him to be 65 & a death register in 1898 whick showed he was 62!! Other family members ages seem to vary by 5-6 years for every census.
I also believe there is a mistake on my grandfathers marriage extract that shows his father as John when all my research since leads me to believe it was Walter!!

Appreciate any feedback
Robd

[AndrewP]

Hi Robd,



The information on the birth, marriage and death certificates; and censuses is only as accurate as the information given by the person informing the registrar or census enumerator. The highest numbers of inaccuracies are to be found on death certificates and census pages.

If you consider someone born soon after statutory registration started in Scotland in 1855, and you are fortunate enough to be able to trace them through the censuses of 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901, and have seen their birth, marriage and death certificates, you can trace their ages right the way through. It is unusual to find someone whose age is correct on all the documents. In general, the younger years are usually more accurate than the later years, although not always.

As you have found, the census pages that we see were written by the census enumerator. A few days prior to the census date, he handed out household schedules to every household in his given area. He then had to go back and collect these from the householders in the days following the census. Then his job was to transcribe what the householder had written on their form into his enumeration book. As the household schedules were issued, he numbered them. Upon writing up his enumeration book, these schedule numbers were entered in the first column, so he was able to know that all of the schedules had been received back in, and entered in the sequence of his walk around the area. When he was transcribing the information, if the given information was inaccurate or the handwriting was difficult to read, then there was room for inaccuracies to appear in his enumeration book, as well as any mistakes that he may have made. The enumerator in these older censuses was normally an educated person in the area, such as the minister, schoolmaster or the like. Hopefully this meant that his handwriting was legible - sadly that was not always the case. So in later years when the censuses were computer indexed, these all had to be read, and of course there was room for error there too.

I know that paints a bad picture of it, but in reality given the number of people counted in each census, the information is fairly accurate, but definitely not to be taken as absolute fact.

The death certificate inaccuracies mainly stem from the information given to the registrar. If the information was given by a grandchild of the deceased, how accurately did he know the age of the grandparent; their occupation; if a woman, her maiden surname; and information about the deceased's parents (names, especially mother's maiden surname, and occupations). Similarly if the informant was an in-law or unrelated (such as a friend, as neighbour, or a hospital or poorhouse administrator) the information may be inaccurate or completely unknown. However, again I don't want to paint a bad picture of the situation, most of the information is good, but to ascertain as fact should be backed up by other information found.

All the best,

AndrewP

[robd]

Thanks Andrew, much appreciated.

Robd