Census

[philandlil]

on a census does the status mother actually mean the birth mother or could it be possibly a guardian or maybe adoptive mother or step mother?

[dot.hawkes]

all entries on a census under the relationship to head mean exactly that, and so any 'Mother' will be the mother of the head of the household. This would usually be the birth mother, the clue should be in the surname, if it is a step-mother or mother-in-law this would be indicated but only recorded as the enumerator copied from the original form,

[philandlil]

Thanks for your answer dot, there are 4 children listed aged approx 9, 6, 2, 2 the first three have different surname to anyone else in the house and the listed mother and father are around age 22/23, what is the best was to find out their true birth parents?

[Barmaid]

I have learned not to trust the Census "relationships" column. I have people listed as "in laws" when they were in fact step parents, I have people listed as sister/brother/parent to head of house, when they are in fact sister/brother/parent in law. I have people down as "father" when in fact they are step father. In fact, I have learned not to trust the census at all and use it as a tool to go back to the original bmd record.

Philandlil, given that you have found this on the Census, it must be an 1851 or later Census. The children and particularly the younger child (the two year old) would therefore have been born well after civil registration came in (1837) , although it only became mandatory in 1875 so a few are missing. I would suggest you obtain a copy of the birth certificate of at least the younger child. As a start you can look on freebmd to see if you can find the reference. Failing that, buy a few credits for findmypast.com. You should then be able to find a potential birth entry and reference which you can use to order the cert from the GRO.

[dot.hawkes]

have you looked to see if this is an entry for a household or a house? Within one property there may be several households and it is possible there has been an error by the enumerator, have you looked for anone else in the same enumeration district with the same surname of the children?
A household within a multi-occupancy property is indicated by one oblique dash and the end of an address is indicated with a double oblique dash. Is it possible that this is a larger family that has been listed across two folios?

It may even be that the three children are the siblings of the young mother, do you have her maiden surname?

[Peter Pedant]

Dot usually has it

I have found step daughter when it is that.
Suppose the informant lies to the enumerator ?
A long search revealed Bridget Angus was enumerated as Bregena. I speculated that it was the child who was the informant whilst the mother was at work, and had only heard her called Bridge.

It is almost always related to the head of the household unless the enumerators attention is wandering

So mr and mrs smith, may have a step daughter Sarah Morgan, and that is because Mrs SMith might have been Mrs Morgan once and seen Mr Morgan to the grave leaving Mrs Morgan as a widow and miss morgan.

If Mr Smith dies, Mrs SMith is now the head of the household as widow, and has a daughter Sarah Morgan who is unmarried.

Usually under these similar circs, Sarah is the illegitimage child but here she is the daughter of the first marriage.

These things come out in the marriage certificates

Constant attention to detail.

For ten years I had an uncle down as a father.
confusing
one family seemed to have two husbands
and one didnt have any

It didnt click for a decade

One Uncle Frederick was always known as Uncle Frank. Four brothers not five, no Francis.

[philandlil]

Thank you all for answering
It is the 1861 census, i have been using the library edition of Ancestry to do my research.
I will have a look if they are a household or a house.
I have the mothers maiden name and it is different to the childrens.