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Archiver > NY-IRISH > 2008-10 > 1224948695


From: "Clare Higgins" <>
Subject: [NY-IRISH] Census Taker Mistakes
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 11:31:35 -0400
In-Reply-To: <32305.9203.qm@web59914.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>


Hi, everybody. I have a question about census-taking methods.

Did the census taker write down the information in his book on the spot, as
he was interviewing people, or did he record it on paper and enter it into
the books later? It's hard to think of anyone carrying those huge books
around all day. I ask this because perhaps mistakes occurred during the
transference of info into the books.

In my family, one record listed my GGGPs as having an eldest son named
Aaron. But my GGF's name was Morris, as was his father's name.
Traditionally, the first-born son in an Irish family is named after the
father's father. Aaron doesn't appear in any of my grandfather's research
material, and Grandpa talked directly with his own father and many
relatives.

Also, my GGF is listed in 1880 as having a wife named Bridget, a son named
John and a daughter named Maria. Maria doesn't appear in any subsequent
census records of the family, and I thought she died. Then I visited the
church in the town the family lived in, and looked up old baptism records,
and I discovered that Maria was my GGF's niece, not his daughter. She was
the daughter of his wife Bridget's sister.

Census-taking was surely an incredibly tedious task, and I wouldn't blame
anyone for spacing out while doing it.


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