Thursday, May 11, 2006

Is this a fake entry in 1881 English census?



One of the classic census entries is in the 1881 census for the British Isles. Go here for the census entry box, then:

1) Enter the name "Robert Goodman" with a birth date of "1829," .and hit Search

2) You should get one entry for a Robert Goodman, born in Kent. Click on his name.

3) This gives you a page with his individual census data. Click on the "Household" link in the upper right hand corner.

4) The household listings come up. This "family" raises many questions:

a) Is Robert really an "International Playboy?"

b) Is Cecily really that age?

c) Is the son really the son of these parents?

d) What is a "Ponce?" Um, Google it!

e) Are all the servants really from those places?

What do you think? Is it on the actual census entry? Is this a fake census entry? If so, who put it in the database?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's an actual page which can be seen on Ancestry.com, the UK census collection. There are a couple of other things wrong with it: the page heading details have not been completed (civil parish, etc., and the previous page (page 47) has only four entries. The handwriting is quite different, and is very faint (pencil?)
Perhaps there are other deficiencies that people can spot?

Ann Phillips

Randy Seaver said...

Ann,

Thanks for the information. I will check it out on Ancestry when I next get to the FHC.

Cheers -- Randy