Where is Cloisters/Cloisten?

[k0065126]

I am researching George Budden and according to the 1871 to 1891 censuses he was born in 1834 in Poole or in 1837 in Christchurch, (1891 census).

There is a soldier called George Budden listed in the 1861 census born in Christchurch in 1832 and the 1851 census, (HO107/1481/399/17), shows, (probably), the same person born in 1831 in either Cloisters or Cloisten in Hants. As he could be the George I am looking for I would like to identify his place of birth.

Does anyone know where this is? I have checked Ordnance Survey, GenUKI, OldMaps and other sources with no success. It is possible that it is a farm in the Christchurch area.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Viv

[Mythology]

A guess.

Christchurch written as "Christch" by George on some bit of paper sent round by Sergeant-Major Nobrain and wrongly copied?

[k0065126]

Mythology,

Thanks for the suggestion but I do not think so. The attached jpeg shows what was written.

Viv

[k0065126]

I hope this image displays properly.

Viv

[Mythology]

It's only a guess, Viv, so I don't want to make too much of it, but ...

Firstly, don't worry about the fact that the attachment didn't come out properly - I have the CD. I agree that it looks like Cloisters, but ....

Does it not strike you as suspicious that all the writing on that page is the same?

That is the collated *information*, not a series of individual entries *written* by each soldier. The army loved paperwork so, in the same way that householders returns were distributed, and what we see on the census is not what the person wrote, it's what the enumerator copied into his book and quite often fouled up, the army are likely to have distributed some sort of form for them to fill in rather than have someone actually go around taking it all down verbally and writing it straight into the book.

Copying error is, therefore, just as much a possibility as it would be on a normal census page for someone at home.

[k0065126]

If this attempt to attach an image fails I will give up.

Viv

[k0065126]

Mythology,

Thanks, my assumption is that the orderly room clerk would have compiled the return, especially as many of the other ranks would have been unable to read and write. And the writing for each page in an ED should be the same as it would have been the enumerator who wrote all of it.

It could be that a clerk copied from the army records and mistranscribed the initial document. One day I will get back to Kew which may hold George's attestation papers which ought to show his place of birth.

Viv

[Geoffers]

what we see on the census is not what the person wrote, it's what the enumerator copied into his book and quite often fouled up, the army are likely to have distributed some sort of form for them to fill in rather than have someone actually go around taking it all down verbally and writing it straight into the book. Copying error is, therefore, just as much a possibility as it would be on a normal census page for someone at home.
And the peson who wrote the details in the regimental description book didn't have very good handwriting, so the person who copied the details into the census schedule didn't get it quite right, and the enumerator had problems reading that, so......How does the old joke go?........"Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance."

Geoffers