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Click ADD REPLY button - not this link!

Click ADD REPLY button - not this link! Report 20 Dec 2008 01:49

Hi Kirsty,

That's on Ancestry.

Here's the reference: Class: RG12; Piece: 2368; Folio 126; Page 11

Rose

Sue in Somerset

Sue in Somerset Report 20 Dec 2008 17:39

What you need to remember Kirsty is that none of the census documents we can see are originals. In early censuses people didn't fill in their own forms.

The enumerators wrote down details in books. These were copied by them onto the sheets we can see on microfiche or as supposedly "original documents"

Then the census sheets have been transcribed by volunteers to give us the easy to read print versions.

At each stage there is the opportunity for errors and misunderstandings. Sometimes genders or ages are wrong. Names may be misheard by the enumerator or wrongly transcribed recently if the handwriting was poor or faded.

I have recently found several missing ancestors with weird transcriptions of their names.

My great grandmother Ellen is (for reasons I don't understand) written down as Claire on the 1901 census. I have checked the "original" document and it does indeed look like Claire but I am 100% positive that this is wrong because I know her unusual birthplace and all is correct in every other document........plus the fact she was still alive when I was a child!

So don't worry. If things don't quite match just try to think laterally and either think how might someone have made a careless error or how might a name sound if an enumerator were told it by someone with a strong local accent.

Kezia is always and only a female name. It is as female as Elizabeth or Mary and is not a name which is ever used for males.

Best wishes
Sue

Kirsty

Kirsty Report 21 Dec 2008 10:58

Thank you, that was very useful information. I think I am gaining a better understanding of how things work though it does all get quite confusing at times!
The name Kezia was really interesting to me so am going to look into that a little.

Thanks again for the tips :)

Kirsty x