Yesterday I told you that Monica was missing from her family in the 1871 census although she should have been seven years old at that time. The clues that she was hiding somewhere in the data were the listing of seven year old Thomas E Harrousmith as a “daughter” and the absence of said Thomas in subsequent censuses. The person who transcribed the original handwritten data into the searchable typed format somehow misread Monica. Below is the original handwritten census document. Double click on the doc below to magnify it.
It turns out original handwritten records often have obvious mistakes and the transcriptions of those records into a searchable format often contain mistakes. Monica was already living on her own by age 17 so she doesn’t show up with the family at that point. Later, Monica is listed as “Mormea” in the 1901 Census. This error occurred despite the fact that in the 50 million or so names in ancestry.com, she is one of only 3 persons with the name “Mormea.” Since the whole page of the 1901 census data is written out by the same, carefully precise hand, the writer was obviously copying from the forms filled out in the field and had some trouble figuring out that it was Monica not Mormea! It’s also interesting that in 1891 Monica was living with her husband Thomas Alderson and a person called Peter Arrowsmith. You may remember that yesterday’s episode had no Peter in Monica’s family….and therein lies tomorrow’s tale.
Cleary Family History 