Does anyone know on what DATE the 1901 census was taken?

[Tinker]

Thought I'd found my grandad but it depends on what date teh census was done,

Thanks

31st March I believe

rmhh.co.uk/dates.html

Yes, 31 March.

Thank you. And are the recordings of ages accurate?

My grandfather was born in 1898 but post-census date. However, an entry appears to fit for him but showing the child as 3.

No the census is very bad at recording ages correctly. The first census that named persons nationally, the persons were actullay told to round their age up or down by 5 years - though some people rounded their ages up - when they should have rounded down and visaversa and some didn't bother at all and just gave thier age!

Later census you were supposed to give your exact age, but age wasn't as important back then (as it is now) and as a pension wasn't applicable what did it matter. or you may have married your husband and told him a porky that you were three years younger than him - infact you were 5 years older so you put the lie in the census. (of course the death certificate could also be 8 years out on fact)

Woman maybe giving the details to an ennumarator and have five or six children round her feet - giving the ages maybe miss heard or muddled up or she was busy and just plain got the ages wrong!

never trust ages in census - they are only as reliable as the person who filled it in (as are death ages, and I guess marriage ones too !).

With family history always be wary of ages

Oh, that's really useful Ivykaty. Feel more confident that it's teh right one now.

x posts. Thanks throckenholt

No ages are often way out -- more likely to be accurate for children and more accurate the younger they are, but still can be a bit vague. It depends on how the enumerator went about things, who actually provided the responses, etc., etc.

Thanks P&L. Infuriatingly, my great-grandfather is not listed, just my grandfather and his mother. So, have no clue at all as to his age (or whereabouts that night!)

The ages for children were just as likely to be wrong as any other person recorded in the census. A woman with 10 children at home may well lie about the ages as she wants help in the home with the cooking and cleaning - schools had started 20 years previously for the all. The mother of the house didn't want the child going to school and would possibly lie about the age to keep the dc at home.

People were scepticle about who had access to the census imformation so would lie on these forms aswell.

Tinker your great grandfather is most probably listed on the census - you are probably looking and searching on a transcription of the census through either findmypast or ancesotry and these may have errors with the transcription from the original.

let me know how you are searching and i will try and explain how you can search in another manr and find who you are looking for

Which transcription are you using?

what parish was your ggrandfather born or what county was he last found in?

Which census are you searching for him?

see if you can find any uncles, aunts or grandparents - he may have been staying with one of them.

Can you find a marriage certificate in the GRO indexes? If you get a copy of that it will tell you your great-grandfather's age (and then you might even be able to find him in the 1901 census too). If your grandfather was their eldest child, and you are pretty sure that they were married when he was born, try searching backwards from his birth quarter (less helpful if John Smith married Jane Jones, obviously...)

You could also try searching for your great-grandfather in the 1891 census and go from there.

He's quite likely to just be away from home, though, Ivykaty. Tinker, have you looked at the original page image (i.e. not just the transcription)? Ivykaty is right, you should always do that so that you aren't relying on transcription skills (which can be very variable -- in some censuses for some areas almost every family unit I've looked for has had significant transcription errors on the indexes I've checked).

Thanks all. I was only playing about on genesreunited. My ggm is listed as married not widowed so there should be a father somewhere in 1901 (and I'm certain that there would have been no divorce) I have found my grandfather's birth recorded so will get his birth certificate (unless there is another way I can view the details). Don't know the names of any of his siblings for certain.

I would recommend signing up for a free trial with Ancestry.co.uk if you'd like to see what else you can find.

Was he in the Boar war?

can you find him on the 1891 census?

Have you looked at the five pages either side on the original census on the website you found your 3 year old ancestor?

Was he back in the household later - after 1901 ? Divorce wasn't allowed so people soemtime more often than not just upt and left, so widow no but married and estranged yes (then it was never ever "mentioned" in the family)

Was he admitted to an asylum? And often asylums were full and patients can edn up miles away from home in counties at the other end of the country.

Just a few ideas to keep you searching

It was a transcript by the way, not teh original page

I would actually use OROGINS

Dont really like the site but have had excellent results with their software finding people that appear to be hiden.

You can patiently search using the first couple of letters of a name and add * Which is really helpful

i do think though the site is an expensve one but results it can provide where others fail.

If you want to CAT me details I'd happily look up the original page image for you [probably I can't steal your identity through details of your 3yo grandfather, but I understand if you don't want to risk it]

Oh, good ideas. Boer War? Maybe, hadn't thought of that. Ha, just remembered, I wonder if he was at sea. Liverpool so likely. Catholic so certain no divorce but could, of course, have been estranged as you say. But don't think so. I must speak to my auntie who is the last person alive who will know this stuff.

Thanks all. May take you up on that P&L. If you don't hear from me it'll be because I've not got round to it probably

Even the original pages are a transcription found page i.e.

You input the name in the software database and they pop up lots of results that are close or nearly like what you are searching.

trawling through the originals i.e.

We mean go to the county and then to the parish and search through each page in the parish to see if the person or family is meantioned/listed. The if not start on another parish. This takes time as some parishes will be 20 pages whilst others will be over 200 pages