Or ... who gave the information? Perhaps the family wasn't home at the time and the neighbors "guessed" at the ages. Happened all the time, esp. in rural America -- think spring, think mud, think trudging around on foot only to find folks not there. You were just glad to have any information on the household if you were the census-taker! Ant to Margaret's comment: > They also would not think that 150 years later we would be searching for > them so who cared how old they were. Or that 400 years after they died, someone placed a grave on the stone to remember them .... It really is quite amazing, isn't it? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret Cambridge" <talktomarg@shaw.ca> To: "Frank Green" <letellierfg@hotmail.com>; <London-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 1:46 PM Subject: Re: [LON] CENSUS - Recorded Age > Hi Frank, > A lot of people didn't write well enough to record birthdates so probably > were not certain of a childs birth year. Also imagine a father looking at > his kids and recording them by how tall they were. If you grew taller than > your older sister your dad would be in a dilema. I'm one of 7 and my > father carried a card in his wallet with our birth dates on it as he could > never remember how old we were..-)) I generally have found the census > closest to their birth is most likely to be nearly correct. > They also would not think that 150 years later we would be searching for > them so who cared how old they were. > > Marg > From the Beautiful British Columbia Cariboo Region, Canada > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Frank Green" <letellierfg@hotmail.com> > To: "genealogy" <london-l@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 10:24 AM > Subject: [LON] CENSUS > > > > Hello Listers, > While searching through sequential census I've noticed, among other > things, some significant discrepancies in persons ages between the ten > year census periods. I suppose for some people there was less importance > attached to remembering precise dates in those earlier years, and may > they > have only thought about it when the census man called. I understand it > was > once thought that some family Heads intentionally advanced their age so as > to qualify earlier for the newly introduced pension. It sounds like a > cute > plan but I would doubt that the authorities , even in the mid 19th > century, > would let that pass unquestioned. One of my families in fact showed that > either the census taker, or the family Heads , had added ten more years > to > their previously established age. There are probably a good many > theories (and stories) about census errors, discrepancies, and I would be > most interested to read comments from Listers on this subject. I hope I’m > not re-introducing an already much discussed subject. > Thank you. > Frank, MANITOBA > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > This mailing list works in parallel with the London surname interest list > on the web at http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~hughw/london.html . Check for > matching interests and add your own ! > > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: LONDON-admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LONDON-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message