Roy's comments on Census errors also bring to mind other reasons why the facts may differ from what you find in an index: The process involved somebody filling in the form, somebody else copying that onto another sheet, and then that sheet being transcibed for the index. Lots of room for errors there. Going back to what was first written, the target may be a border, pupil, servant or in an institution and what was written more what the form filler thought. More errors. Even within a family, the forename may be the name the target was usually called, not the baptismal name. Place of birth may have been more the answer to "where are you from?" or even correct, but different from usual residence and baptismal place (born back at granny's place). Age was frequently falsified - even by the target, out of vanity, modesty or pure fun. Even allowing for all that, some of my lot found a place to hide where nobody counted them - or those sheets have not survived. Brian Taylor