Welcome to the club, Shirley. Prpbably most of us could tell tales of messed up names either on the original census documents or on the trnscriptions. Example: I found my Mom in the census when she was a teenager listed as having the same surname as her stepfather. Her siblings were also listed with his name, altho' he never formally adopted any of them, and they always used the surname of their real father. And then one of Mom's sisters had a fairly unusual (for the US) given name and the enumerator wrote what he heard, which was only the final syllable of the name. Another sibling was already married and living in a separate apartment in the same house and was listed twice - once with her mother and stepfather and again with her husband. I think the reason for all that error in one household was that they had come from another country just a few years before, and my GM's English was still a bit limited. So she undoubtedly listed her children's given names without thinking to mention that they had a different surname, and the enumerator either didn't ask or Gram misunderstood what he was asking. And since the married daughter was, after all, still her daughter, she listed her, as well. And then the enumerator went to the apartment and wrote those names, assuming my aunt to be a separate person, with the same rather common given name. All in all, it was a real puzzle that I might not ever have solved if I hadn't thought to check to see if any of my step-grandfather's sons were also living with him - and lo-and-behold, there they were! So in this case it was a combination of a person with limited English answering questions very literally and an enumerator who didn't ask quite enough questions and then assumed some answers that were not correct. Best wishes for more successful hunting!

I have been trying to find the following people in the 1901 Census without any success. Can anyone suggest possible ways I could use to try and find them? They were most likely living in Burton upon Trent 1) Caroline Mary THORNTON Born Caroline Mary LEIGH, born 5th March, 1851, Walton, County of Derby In the 1981 census her occupation is needlewoman. Caroline married Edmund William ADAMS in 1872. He died in 1881 in Reading. After Edmund died she married Henry THORNTON in 1886. Henry appears in the 1901 Census in Burton upon Trent and gives his status as widower. He was a working brewer. However, Caroline Mary THORNTON, died 7 Feb 1941, aged 89, in Burton on Trent. 2) Dora THORNTON, daughter of Caroline and Henry Thornton, born in 1890 in Burton upon Trent, so would be about 11 in 1901. Married Thomas Joseph BEESON in 1906. 3) Ethel Ann DUNCAN, born Ethel Ann ADAMS in 1878 in Reading, eldest daughter by the first marriage of Caroline's, Ethel married Alexander James Duncan in 1900. I searched for Ethel and her husband as I thought Caroline and Dora might be living with her in 1901. Maybe I have to wait for the 1911 Census!