My experience of census birth locations leads me to believe that the name of the place you were born in is reported, dependant on how far away you are from your place of birth. To give an example. A person born in Hackney London, will give, if London is the area they are in at the time of the census, Hackney as their place of birth. If they are in Manchester they will give London as there place of birth and if out of the country might only give England. So it might be that the people living close to where they were born will give a hamlet of village name, but the other side of the island will give the parish name. Ian -----Original Message----- From: Don Hayward [mailto:Don@wendon.demon.co.uk] Sent: 11 March 2004 08:07 To: ISLE-OF-WIGHT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [IoW] Birth Place Question On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:20:30 +1000, you wrote: >I have a question re people born in Shalfleet / Calbourne . For some >reason all those I have born in either of these two places can't make >up their mind where they were born . Some appear as Calbourne , others >Shalfleet , some Freshwater , some Brooke , some Ningwood some >Hamstead. Some are different in every census ! I don't have problems >with those ancestors born Cowes ! If they said West Cowes they meant >West Cowes ! Anyone else have this problem ? I know the areas were very >close together just seems odd that everyone on this particular branch >has an identity problem ! > >Angela > > Angela No identity problem. 1. Did it matter ...... THEY knew where they lived! 2. Depended on which church was in favour at the time of the Wedding/baptism/burial 3. Father kept moving from farm to farm to stay in work and we went with him. 4. Theys all the zame aint they giv er tak a bit. 5. Cayz is a big tain an you knows where yu is at. So's simple. Tain't the zame in the cuntry. You'me gotta live yer to know it. Don --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.618 / Virus Database: 397 - Release Date: 09/03/2004 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.618 / Virus Database: 397 - Release Date: 09/03/2004