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Archiver > BRISTOL_AND_DISTRICT > 2008-05 > 1210777431


From: Charani <>
Subject: Re: [B&D] GENERAL CENSUS QUERY
Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 16:09:32 +0100
References: <BAY113-W28FEF2ECFE29744318BFE9CECE0@phx.gbl>
In-Reply-To: <BAY113-W28FEF2ECFE29744318BFE9CECE0@phx.gbl>


Vivian Simmonds wrote:
>
> Was it illegal to lie about your marital status on the census? I
> have found the person I have been looking for in the 1901 census
> living with his mother who is shown as 'widow'. However, having
> searched for some time for a marriage, I am beginning to wonder
> whether she was indeed a widow or whether she was single and her
> son was illegitimate.

Well, it might have been, but people did lie on censuses then and they
still do today <BG>

It was quite common for an unmarried woman with a child (or children)
to describe herself as a widow. Equally an abandoned wife might also
describe herself as a widow. Better to be thought of as such than as
a woman of loose morals or as abandoned.

One thing to bear in mind is that it was quite common for a woman to
to go down the aisle with a child already on the way. If something
then happened to her intended husband, eg he died as a result of
illness or an accident, or he ran away, then she would end up as a
"gal in trouble" quite unintentionally. So describing herself as a
widow may be an indication that she had been engaged at one time but
he'd died before they'd married.

Another scenario is that she did indeed marry but her husband died
shortly afterwards.

--
Charani (UK)
OPC for Walton, SOM
http://wsom-opc.org.uk

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