Hi Mike First .. don't assume *anything* The census records what the person who filled in the form either understood was the place of birth or wanted the powers that be to know was the place of birth And no more It will generally be the village, town or area the person was born in, sometimes the place they grew up and *thought* they were born in You will often find that the further away from the place they were born in, the more general the description So someone born in the next village would give the village name, if living miles away they might give the nearest market town, if at the other end of the Country it might be the nearest City There was no checking done to validate the information given, if they stated born in Catford, thats what went down on the form Then there is an added complication, the enumerator may not have heard of the place the head of household entered on the form and may have put down his interpretation of it You may find someone giving a different birthplace on every census they are in but more often than not its the right place or somewhere near it As a general rule people were speaking from their own local knowledge and not of administrative areas So someone entering Idle Yorkshire might be born anywhere near Idle but not necessarily in Idle Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > Hi, > > I'm relatively new to English research, and have a question about the English census records of > 1851 and 1861. My question is about the place of birth as it appears on the census records. I've > been doing a lot of searching on the internet for an answer, but the info I've found seems > inconsistent. I'm researching the ODDY, SCOTT and LONSDALE families in the Bradford area. If the > place of birth listed on the census record is the name of a town (or village), and is also the > name of the civil parish/township in which that town is located, is that census record an > indication that the person was born in that town, or simply born somewhere in that > parish/township? For example, Idle Township (in Calverley Parish) includes the village of Idle, > the village of Windhill, and several smaller hamlets. If the place of birth on the census record > (1851 or 1861) is "Idle, Yorkshire", should I assume that person was born in the village of Idle, > or simply assume that he/she was born somew! > here in Idle Township (possibly in Windhill or one of the other hamlets in Idle Township)? > > Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I'm really confused by this! > > Mike Landwehr