Why did my ancestor lie? (Quick tip: 1)

Couples sometimes gave incorrect ages on their marriage certificates and on censuses to make the age difference between them appear more acceptable.

We like to think of our ancestors as fine upstanding members of the community and it can sometimes come as a shock to discover that they told an untruth when registering important events such as births, marriages and deaths or when passing on personal details to census enumerators. Giving false information on a census was actually an offence punishable by a fine (in 1911 this could have been up to £5), but nevertheless many people took the risk and lied anyway. Unfortunately for us, our ancestors may have misrepresented all manner of details about themselves including their names, ages, occupations, places of birth, relationship to the heads of households, infirmities and, in the 1911 census, even how many years they had been married and how many children they had had.  But don’t despair, working out why your ancestor might have lied about one fact or another can be just as satisfying as – and perhaps even more thrilling than – uncovering the truth straight off. It can certainly tell you a great deal about the times in which he or she lived.

For Social History and Women’s History Books https://www.naomisymes.com/