searchmyancestry – Ruth A. Symes
Innovative approaches to understanding more about your family history
On censuses, many young Victorian girls pretended that they had already reached the age of 15 in order to have a better chance of obtaining work as domestic servants and to command better wages when they did so. Sidney Paget, the Boscombe Valley Mystery, Illustration of 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery', in The Adventures of Sherlock... Continue Reading →
Women of all classes fabricated their age on the nineteenth century censuses. The government report into the census of 1881 stated that many women ‘desirous of being thought younger than they really are, return themselves as under 25 or under 30 when their true age is considerably beyond these limits.’ Interestingly, there was also a... Continue Reading →
Just submitted the first of three articles looking at the funny gaffes, bloopers and mix-ups that sometimes disrupted births, marriages and deaths in the nineteenth century! http://www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 'Marriage Mishaps' coming soon, November 2025 For Social History and Women's History Books https://www.naomisymes.com/
