Census Mystery

[christanel]

Many thanks for your replies. I confess that I grossly underestimated the depth of help I would get in response to my question. I had intended just to elicit an opinion or two as to whether the 1891 census could possibly contain a false record of Isabella being back in the household (I still have some doubt that she was - based on my mother's information).

I apologise for not providing the surname in my OP, and putting you to the trouble of finding it - that was not my intention, and lesson learned - and impressed and embarrassed in equal measure. I do have a good deal of family tree for the Gibbs and Goulds. Just the disjoint between Isabella leaving Henry aged two (my mother's belief), and still being there when Henry was 8 (the documented evidence).

Many thanks again, and I'll be more careful with my next question.

No apologies necessary, yours was a general enquiry about possible errors in a census but we sticky-beaks took it further - because we love a mystery and can't help ourselves

It may well be that Isabella left home when Henry was age 2 and then returned at some point before leaving again after the 1891 census. Or for some reason Edward included her to save face but if he lived in a small place his circumstances would possibly have been known so why lie. Unfortunately most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in a 1921 fire and fragments of the US census population schedule exist only for the states of Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas, and the District of Columbia. I can't find anything in the 1890 Census Substitute results on ancestry. Even then she could have been in the US and back with Edward in 1891.
Christina

[Grip Fast]

Thank you Christina. I'll keep digging to see if I can come up with any more information. I did wonder if Edward thought young Henry would be taken into care if his mother had gone, so had claimed Isabella was still at home. I notice on the census document, all the numbers in the Age column have a line through them (as if checked off or ticked), except for Isabella. Could this be an indication that she wasn't present when the census was recorded?

I must admit that the simplest explanation is that she was just visiting America in 1885, or that I have the wrong Isabella Gibb traveling in that year, and she had actually left sometime after 1891. I wonder how likely a servant would be able to afford to take a trip/holiday to America in 1885.

There is a letter from 1927, that I haven't seen yet (my sister has it in storage), from a Mr Bell in America, asking Henry's wife (my grandmother) to let Henry know that his mother Isabella had died. Mr Bell (I don't know his first name yet) was who Isabella left for, and we believe married in the USA to become Isabella Bell.

[christanel]

Please come back to us when you have the information in that letter. I did a preliminary search for an Isabella Bell/Gould/Gibb but no result as yet.
Christina