Thread: Help!! Change of Birthplace on the Census

I have been doing family research into my fathers side of the family for some time, and thought I was getting to the stage where I was tying lose ends rather than researching! Have come across a slight problem though, the lady I had believed to be my great grandmother, and had researched as being born in Gyffin, Caernarvonshire (after information on the 1891 census) place of birth has changed to being Bethesda on the 1911 census. I was just enquiring as to whether this is common? Or whether anybody else had encountered the same problems? And for what reasons could it be, or is it simply a case of them being different people?

Thanks

I have had this happen a lot in my family tree – Often I have found that on several census records people offer the correct information of their birthplace and then because of a possible misunderstanding by the enumerator or perhaps, the person themselves, the area that they are living in at the time of the census, is entered as their place of birth.



Or as you suggest it could just simply be a different person



The 1911 census has often tripped me up – all along one relation’s records showed London as POB but then in 1911 suddenly Lowestoft – but it was definitely him.



I am sure that we are not the only ones that this has happened to

I have also had it a lot in my tree. One census had Hampshire changed to Hamburg. Several times the same road has appeared in different counties usually because of boundary changes. One person was apparently born in a different place in each census but I do know she was hiding. I know that in the furure my own name will show as being born in different places as I used the town on one, and the borough on 2 others but the name of the borough changed. I haven't a clue what my parents put when I was young.

Yes I've found this. I tend to go with the earliest census I can, as this is most likely to have had information provided by the parents.



Once people are adult they might put the place they were brought up rather than place of birth.



Before the introduction of mass passports and the endless form-filling we have today people wouldn't necessarily have been exact about it anyway.



The two intractable problems I have are in my tree where I have a gt gt grandfather who has no less than 5 different birthplaces on 5 different censuses, with a birthyear spanning 5 years! Helpfully he is called William Williams so I have found 3 possible baptisms - all of which are equally plausible!



The other is in my husband's tree where he has a female ancestor who has two different birthplaces which sound similar but are in two different counties. No idea which is right, she switches from census to census!

Thankyou all so much for your replies, it's my first jaunt into family history and after the smug feeling of having it all sorted, I was starting to feel like I had done something majorly wrong.



Hoping that it's not a case of a different person, I had believed that I would get away with it thinking that Harriet Hannah was a rare name- but no, one was born in both offered birth locations, right year!!



Thanks again for all your help

The following is a quote from the National Gazetteer (1868)

"GYFFIN, a parish in the hundred of Isaf, county Carnarvon, 2 miles from Conway. The parish, which is of considerable extent, containing five townships, is situated near the river Conway. It was at this place that the Welsh gained a victory in 880 over the Saxons under Earl Eadred. Here was once a Cistercian abbey, founded by Llewelyn-ap-Jorwerth, which was subsequently removed by Edward I. to Maenan. The living is a perpetual curacy in the diocese of Bangor, value £115, in the patronage of the Dean of Bangor. The church is an ancient structure with stained-glass windows and an antique font. The charities produce about £7 per annum, including the income of Dean Jones's school."

This is about 2 miles from Conwy (used to be Conway in "English"). Bethesda is probably about 20 miles away, on the other side of the mountains.

Thanks Carol. I do believe (or want to believe!) that it's the Harriet H who was born in Gyffin that is my great grandmother, more for the fact that the Harriet H of Gyffin had been a maid on my great grandfathers farm since she was 15 or so according to the census. It seems to tie in better than Harriet H of Bethesda, logistically too Harriet H of Gyffin's family were renting land from my great grandfathers estate... Just want to be certain before I go splurging on birth certificate's etc, family research is a lot more costly than I'd thought! What do you think though? I think I've talked myself into Harriet H of Gyffin (after watching one too many period dramas with romantic ending!). I can't seem to find the Harriet H of Bethesda on any other census than the 1881 either...