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Burley In Wharfedale _Census

Census Mistakes

You may not be able to find your ancestors in the censuses. Here are some reasons WHY.

• Five per cent of the population don't appear in a census for one reason or another.
• People moved around more than we think in the Victorian era, but if someone should have been at a certain address on census night and wasn't, check the rest of the neighbourhood. Who knows, they might have gone round to friends for a drink that night and not made it home;
• Between 5 and 10 per cent of the 1861 census is simply missing;
• The enumerator might have misheard or misunderstood what they were told, so individual entries can be wrong: ages can be a year or two out, occupations can be inaccurate and birthplaces misspelt, e.g. the even numbered houses on Booth Street appear in the 1901 census as part of Sun Lane;

Census Lies

The census is not infallible. People didn't always tell the truth. Here are some of the most common porkies to watch out for.

• For some women, time can be an elastic concept. You may find that a female who gives her age as 23 in the 1891 census might miraculously still be only 28 when the 1901 one was taken;
• Birthplaces can be inaccurate. People often gave the place where they were brought up, or where they spent most of their life. Sometimes they just didn't know where they were born, so simply made it up;
• Children may be listed as scholars. This doesn't necessarily mean they were at school; they may have been working and their parents didn't want anyone to know this;
• Tens of thousands of women earned their living by prostitution. Unsurprisingly, few admitted this to the census.

Source: 'Who Do You Think You Are?', Dan Waddell, BBC Books, 2004 (ISBN: 0 563 52194 5)