I'm just getting started in this genealogy thing (just signed up for a two-week trial of ancestry.com last night). I'm finding lots of old census data (1910/20/30) where it makes sense that this person could be my relative, but the information is slightly wrong (birth year off by a couple of years, first name spelled differently, stuff like that). Is that normal?
Is it normal for the census to be wrong?
Started by
furbabymom
, Jun 10 2011 03:02 PM
8 replies to this topic
#2
out_of_the_ordinary
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Posted 10 June 2011 - 08:34 PM
Yes! I wonder how much was the census worker writing down what they thought they heard and how much of it was people giving bad information to the census worker. I've seen ages changed (it wasn't uncommon for people to lie about their ages to get a job).
Psalm 27:13
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
#3
Cat
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Posted 11 June 2011 - 07:28 AM
Also, some people thought the census questions were too nosy and may have refused to answer. So Census workers would ask neighbors.
Where words and actions disagree, the heart is revealed.
Look how often the unexpected happens... and we still don't expect it.
#4
Deerslayer
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Posted 11 June 2011 - 08:06 AM
plus, if the person couldn't spell the worker spelled the names for them
The answer to "1984" is 1776
WW 2 could have been avoided by the bravery of one good man with a good rifle
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they are not out to get me.
#5
Trudy
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Posted 11 June 2011 - 05:55 PM
Oh yes it is! I have run across this so many times while working on my older family members. I remember when I first started using Ancestry, I was hung up for several days because I mistakenly thought that a census could not be wrong! One of my grandma's sisters was listed as Kara, and I had never heard of a Kara! I even looked on some other trees made by my kinfolk and they had copied Kara from the same census and didn't even know enough about the family to realize it was incorrect. I kept digging, thinking that maybe it was a child that had died young that we didn't know about. I finally figured out that Kara was in fact my Aunt Nora! The dates were correct, just spelled the name wrong. So be careful about getting info from other trees!
#7
Daylily
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Posted 09 August 2012 - 01:20 PM
I was looking up the 1940 census for Mom. She needs to get a photo ID and doesn't have a birth record listed. so we're getting a delayed birth certificate. Anyway her mother's name was listed as Ala instead of Ola and the neighbors were Barkes instead of Barker.
#9
arby
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Posted 13 August 2012 - 05:27 PM
my mom told my my dads dad died when he was 17, but he was actually 20 when his dad died. or 22. sheesh, I need to go look at the pic of the headstone, if I had a car I could visit his grave in less than 3 hours... I found it doing cemetery searches since I knew the town. Or the stone is wrongly dated? heck I dont know and now my dad is so set in his thoughts , what he retains, anyhow I dont know if he would be able to tell me the right year.
so, yea. I bet things were written down wrong all the time.
so, yea. I bet things were written down wrong all the time.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
John 1:5
John 1:5
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