How likely is it that someone appears TWICE on a census?!

[Barmaid]

OK, so we normally find that we can't find who we are looking for! I am trying to tie up some loose ends with one of my lines. I am looking at John Thurlby who was born in 1833 in Caythorpe. I've found him with his parents on the 1841. His grandparents lived nearby and he seems also to be on the 1841 with them!! (OK, so it could be a cousin, I haven't cleared off that possibility). They were farmers in Lincolnshire so I presume that he could have hopped over the fields to Nannie and Grandads!!!

So it's possible I suppose that when the enumerator called the next day, both households says "John was here last night"!

Just a strange thing that goes on in FH.

[dothawkes31]

There only appears to be one baptism for a John Thurlby at Caythorpe 2nd sept 1833 son of John and Francis Thurlby As Caythorpe baptisms are on the familysearc pilot if there was another one in that village for a John in 1833 it would show up. There are a couple off John Thurlby slightly older and younger in surrounding parishes bit none closer than 4 years apart.

Enumerators left the form with the household already filled, usually he filled it in with a predicted listing as this would give him an idea of his count at the start of his district ride and he could then plan for the return collection journeys. He will likely have already filled John in at the parents address on delivery but when he has collected it the grandparents will probably have said the 10 year old John had stayed with them on the census night and the enumerator will have added him, but either not removed him from the parents form for fear of tampering or simply forgotten, but it would probably be the latter reason in my opinion. It has happened before.

[jackthehat]

My Great Aunt (on 1911 census) appears at her parents house AND her grandparents house.
I suppose it's a case of where she 'usually' was.......and where she 'actually' was on census night.

[Barmaid]

Actually, its not that strange. His brother Jesse doesn't appear on the 61 census at all - but rocks up twice on the 71!!!!

Dot were the original forms inserted in the books or were they copied? If the former, that explains a lot of the alterations.

[dothawkes31]

the forms were copied exactly into the enumerators books from 1841 -= 1901, the enumerator was not allowed to alter any information and wouldn't have done so. this is why you get families split between two folios as the enumerator was not allowed to leave blank lines in the books unless it was the end of an ED. (Enumeration dostrict), if John was included on both sheets then he would have been transferred to the enumerators book twice.

[Segilla]

I'm sure I've seen many blank lines at the ends of pages in 1851, GLS and WIL. Enumerators did not always obey the rules, entering surnames first, for example.
Something which always interests me, in some villages where house numbers do not appear, many pages end at the end of a family. I feel that the enumerators must have arranged their families so that they filled twenty lines exactly. if this is so, it is unsafe to assume that adjacent familes were neighbours.