Child labour

[David Tuson]

No doubt we are all familiar with stories of young boys being used as chimney sweeps, but the one below brought a big grin to my face.

I was checking one of the families related to my g-g-g-g-grandfather and on an 1871 census for Lancashire (on FamilySearch but probably uplifted from findmypast) I came across:
Thomas, aged 65, Ag.Lab
Ann, aged 65, Wife
Catherine, aged 33, Daughter, Servant
Margaret, aged 2, Niece, Servant
Margaret was actually the illegitimate daughter of Catherine born in 1869
Wonder what her duties were?

[Peter Goodey]

My tip...always check the image of the original document.

[David Tuson]

My tip...always check the image of the original document.

Hello Peter - I did check the image at the time.
The age was correctly entered as 2 but there was a mark in the occupation field which the transcriber took as a ditto mark, so transcribed "servant" which was her mother's occupation on the line above. An easy error to make especially as census images have lots of marks on them made by those persons compiling statistics, etc.