Jenny, the problem with the 1841 census is the difficulty of knowing what any relationship may be between individuals even in the same household. I recently had a 2-year old I thought was the daughter of the assumed head of the family, only to find her in a later census as his grand-daughter, and in another census as the neice of one of his other children. I still don't know who her parents were, though fortunately she was born after the introduction of civil registration so a birth certificate may be available. Without any other evidence one can't draw any conclusion regarding relationships between the inhabitants of the two houses in the census under discussion. BTW I was looking at the images not a transcription and the separation between houses and households according to the enumerator's marks is unambiguous. It is impossible to say without knowledge from elsewhere regarding the people involved if they are connected in any way. Cheers, Ian Jenny M Benson wrote: > Ian Thirlwell wrote > >> But there's a double dash between Eliza Stevens (NB not Hevens) and >> Mary Blackman plus a separate 1 for occupied house. Mary and Susan are >> not in the same house as Eliza and the previous individuals. The >> previous house is occupied from Rebecca Willie down to Eliza Stevens, >> as indicated by the double dashes and occupied house indicators. >> > > I take your point, but I think in this particular instance it's very > difficult to be sure exactly what the arrangement was. It would > certainly be very usual to find a family of Independent Means with > living-in Servants, and *perhaps* a little less usual to find 3 > unrelated people, all Servants, living together. > > I do think the OP should try and get a look at the image and form > his/her own opinion. I just offered an opinion. >

Hi all The whole point is that the enumerators despite having set instructions as to how to separate households often failed to do so and so we would add that it is not possible to say a census is unambiguous. Given that the image we are all viewing (except Jon for obvious reasons) *IS* a transcript completed by the enumerator from the individual sheets completed by the householders, there is plenty of room for error. BTW Ian, the age of Rebecca is 60 not 50. Regards Linda & Tony ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ian Thirlwell" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 12:33 PM Subject: Re: [PORTSMOUTH-GOSPORT] Fw: 1841 census entry help please > Jenny, > the problem with the 1841 census is the difficulty of knowing what any > relationship may be between individuals even in the same household. I > recently had a 2-year old I thought was the daughter of the assumed head > of the family, only to find her in a later census as his grand-daughter, > and in another census as the neice of one of his other children. I still > don't know who her parents were, though fortunately she was born after > the introduction of civil registration so a birth certificate may be > available. > Without any other evidence one can't draw any conclusion regarding > relationships between the inhabitants of the two houses in the census > under discussion. > BTW I was looking at the images not a transcription and the separation > between houses and households according to the enumerator's marks is > unambiguous. It is impossible to say without knowledge from elsewhere > regarding the people involved if they are connected in any way. > Cheers, > Ian > > > Jenny M Benson wrote: >> Ian Thirlwell wrote >> >>> But there's a double dash between Eliza Stevens (NB not Hevens) and >>> Mary Blackman plus a separate 1 for occupied house. Mary and Susan are >>> not in the same house as Eliza and the previous individuals. The >>> previous house is occupied from Rebecca Willie down to Eliza Stevens, >>> as indicated by the double dashes and occupied house indicators. >>> >> >> I take your point, but I think in this particular instance it's very >> difficult to be sure exactly what the arrangement was. It would >> certainly be very usual to find a family of Independent Means with >> living-in Servants, and *perhaps* a little less usual to find 3 >> unrelated people, all Servants, living together. >> >> I do think the OP should try and get a look at the image and form >> his/her own opinion. I just offered an opinion. >> > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the > message >