And what are we to make of the relationship in this quotation: No sooner was her answer dispatched, than Mrs. Dashwood indulged herself in the pleasure of announcing to her son-in-law and his wife that she was provided with a house, and should incommode them no longer than till every thing were ready for her inhabiting it. They heard her with surprise. Mrs. John Dashwood said nothing; but her husband civilly hoped that she would not be settled far from Norland. She had great satisfaction in replying that she was going into Devonshire.--Edward turned hastily towards her, on hearing this, and, in a voice of surprise and concern, which required no explanation to her, repeated, "Devonshire! Are you, indeed, going there? So far from hence! And to what part of it?" She explained the situation. It was within four miles northward of Exeter. Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility What was Mrs Dashwood's relationship to her son-in-law's wife? Ron S Original Message: ----------------- From: snape@cix.co.uk snape@cix.co.uk Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 02:38:02 -0400 To: ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: RE: [B.C.] stepchildren etc. > but it is easy to understand the heads of household's reasoning. . . . Many heads of household just listed the step children under their own surname and entered "son" or "daughter." My understanding of census-taking practice in earlier times is that the census "forms" (actually books) were not filled in by the households themselves but were filled in "live" by the census takers on the doorstep. The terminology would be that of the census taker, although he would, of course, be dependent for information upon the person standing on the doorstep (not necessarily the head of household) for information. I have come across census entries where one had the strong impression that the information supplied, particularly with regard to ages, was actually guess-work (maybe from a neigbour?). Ron S Original Message: ----------------- From: chris edwards05@blueyonder.co.uk Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:56:17 +0100 To: ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [B.C.] stepchildren etc. Hi Ted, Polly and everybody, Our ancestors when referring to a some relatives in everyday conversation would have very probably described the relationship rather than use a single word definition. For example (just as we do today) they might say "the wife's brother" or "my sister's son" or "my daughter's husband." The difference being that today if called upon we can use the correct terminology to define each of our relatives. Most working class people rarely had cause to write and many signed their own name with a cross and the only time they had to go through the inconvenience of coming up with unfamiliar words would be every ten years for the census. Like everyone else, I have found that stepchildren were often entered on the census as son-in-law or daughter-in-law. This of course was an inaccurate use of the term but it is easy to understand the heads of household's reasoning. After all if they knew that the wife's father was the father in-law and the wife's brother was a brother-in-law then surely the wife's son was a son-in-law. Many heads of household just listed the step children under their own surname and entered "son" or "daughter." And the uncertainty in applying the correct term did not stop at stepchildren. In my own tree I have a genuine daughter-in-law simply listed as "son's wife" and the grandchildren listed as "son's daughter" or "son's son." In the case of another extended family, the son's children are listed correctly as grandson/granddaughter but in the same household the daughter's children have been listed as nephew and niece. My apologies if the general content of this email arrives twice to the list. I did post a very similar message this morning but it seems to have disappeared. Best wishes, Chris ==== ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY Mailing List ==== Wherever possible (except for personal messages) please post replies to the list.Other people can learn from them! -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ==== ENG-BLACK-COUNTRY Mailing List ==== The B.C. List Admin is Dave Ogden :- d.ogden@blueyonder.co.uk -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ .