Genealogy Chat

Hello there, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas! My Great Granma Elizabeth Slynn according to the 1901 census was born 1869 in Totness Devon. She is in fact listed as Bessie Slym but she checks out with the rest of the household, also listed as Slym!!! According to the 1881 census she was born in 1880!! At that time she was Elizabeth Rammell. I know for sure that her maiden name is Rammell and she was born in the west country. Both births dates could be possible. If she was born in 1880 she would have been 18 when she got married to Frank Slynn in Newport Monmouth and also 18 when her eldest child was born (Frances Annie in 1898). Is it possible that mistakes were made during the census or should I be looking for another Elizabeth Rammell?? Thanks for any advice! Gillian

Hiya Gillian, Mistakes were quite often made on the census, either during the recording of it or later when it was transcibed. Its possible that it is the same woman. A good site to try is: www.census.pro.gov.uk/changes_index.html This has all the mistakes on the census and what they are when theyre correct. That might be worth a try for you. Demelza

Thanks Demelza, Have had a look but no Slym(nn)s! Gillian

According to the various Census returns, my great great grandfather was born in 1807, 1809, 1813 or 1817. The date of birth given onthe census form transcript is calculated from the age which the person says they are - I think they used to forget, and just give an approximation. I've heard that in some census forms age was rounded to the nearest 5, which wouldn't help too much either. Jan.

I have just got a 1891 census to index and the writting is very difficult to read and there is an awful lot of crossing out on it. It will be very difficult not to make a mistake, so I would have thought very easy to get discrepancies. Jo

I also have had relatives with various ages that don't match up with previous censuses. One was 4 years older than his wife in 1861 but the same age as her in 1881. I suppose people forgot the older they got and also as someone pointed out to me it is easier to lie about being 40 when you are closer to 50 than it is to lie about being 3 or 4 when you are nearly 10. It was recommended that I take the earlier census ages as being the most accurate but as has already been pointed out some of them used to round the ages down to the nearest 5 so for example someone was listed as 45 if they were 47. Mel

On my gt gt grandfather's marriage certificate in 1846 and on the 1851 census he is 10 years older than his wife. By the time we get to 1881 and 1901 he is 20 years older. If you find them listed as children at home with their parents that seems to be more reliable than when they give their own ages as adults. Don't forget a lot of these people were illiterate, probably innumerate too, so ages were probably guessed at more than anything. Jan.

Thanks Jo & Jan, I'll assume that Elizabeth Rammell born 1881 is the one as I cannot find any other Elizabeth Rammels born in Totnes around that time. Rammell is an uncommon name & I'm sure about the place of birth as my Dad confirms this. Gillian