Genealogy Chat

I am wondering how common it was for individuals to be recorded twice on a census. How frequently have others come across this? I believe I may have a case where a young man was recorded both with his widowed mother, and with a wife and young children. I am working on the theory that son may have stayed with mother briefly for some reason. The locations concerned are villages close to each other, but I am hampered because it is the 1841 census, so no absolute relationships or place of birth to match up.

Very often

I have it in my tree

My grt x 3 grandma was a monthly nurse
She is recorded on the 1871 at home with her husband and children and at the home where she was doing her monthly nurse duty

Presumably she wasn’t living in but was at the house when the enumerator did the census

edit or it could have been the other way round and her husband misunderstood what he had to record

I have a monthly nurse in my tree, but she was recorded at the home of the family she was working for and not with her own family, so perhaps monthly nurses did "live in"?

I have double records in my tree - as already said, it's common.

A child in my tree was recorded with her parents and siblings, and also with her grandparents elsewhere in the same village. Presumably she was spending the night with her grandparents, but her parents recorded her in their own household all the same.

I’ve one with her parents & also the household where she was employed as a servant. Both addresses were in the same town.

Census returns are for one specific night.

The difference could be down to how the (verbal) sentence was phrased

"Who lives in this house?" v "Who slept in this house?"

Parents could well say that X lives here, omitting to say that on census night s/he 'slept in' at their place of employment. Turn it the other way round for the employer's response.

I would say it's uncommon, but far from unknown. My guess is the rate must be well below 5 households per 1000.

Here's an example where my grandad's aunt, Christian Greig, is shown living with her parents and also with her grandparents.

Piece: SCT1851/218 Place: Longside -Aberdeenshire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Longside Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Folio: 176 Page: 10 Schedule: 52
Address: South Street, Mintlaw
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
GREIG John Head M M 32 Farm Servant Aberdeenshire - Fraserburgh
GREIG Margaret Wife M F 23 Aberdeenshire - Longside
GREIG Christian Dau - F 2 Aberdeenshire - Longside
GREIG William Son - M 6m Aberdeenshire - Longside

Piece: SCT1851/218 Place: Longside -Aberdeenshire Enumeration District: 1
Civil Parish: Longside Ecclesiastical Parish, Village or Island: -
Folio: 176 Page: 21 Schedule: 100
Address: Hill Of Mintlaw
Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
SLESSOR William Head M M 66 Farmer Of 15 Acres & Carrier Aberdeenshire - Longside
SLESSOR Christian Wife M F 52 Aberdeenshire - Old Deer
SLESSOR Mary Dau U F 26 Aberdeenshire - Longside
Page: 176/22 SLESSOR John D Son U M 17 Farmer & Carrier's Son Aberdeenshire - Longside
GREIG Christian Grndau - F 2 Aberdeenshire - Longside