Confused by 1911 Census Entry

[jaimeepage]

My Great- Grandfather, Benjamin Leigh was born in Stockport in December 1904, he is found on the census with his family living at 12 Ford Street in Stockport, great find until I started to notice some odd things about the entry - so there are three children listed , Benjamin, Ellen and Joseph in that order however the census states although the family had three children 'born alive' but only 2 were still living - so why is there 3 on the census.. also found it odd that despite Joseph being older than Ellen he was listed at the bottom. Anyone had anything like this come up before and know why it might be?

[Sandyhall]

Ancestry has them in 1911 Census in this order
James Leigh -Age 27 - Carter
Mary E Leigh - Age 28
Benjamin Leigh - Age 6
Ellen Leigh - Age 2
Joseph Leigh - Age 4

But it dose say 3 children born 2 living and 1 died

Maybe they just but all the children's names down have you looked for a Death yet.

[Sandyhall]

Is it possible that they made a mistake and that it means 2 males and 1 female, not that 1 had died.

[Jomot1]

Ive seen many examples where people have misunderstood the instructions and listed all of the children, including those who have died and/or those who are living elsewhere.

Was Mary E's maiden surname Powell? If so there is a birth & death as follows:

Birth - LEIGH, JOSEPH WILLIAM mmn POWELL GRO Ref: 1907 S Quarter in STOCKPORT Vol 08A Page 63

Death - LEIGH, JOSEPH WILLIAM aged 0 GRO Ref: 1907 S Quarter in STOCKPORT Vol 08A Page 37

[katarzyna]

Yes I agree with Jomot1.
I have two instances where they have entered all the children including those who had died.

[Peter Goodey]

I seem to recall that officials decided that the question had been so widely misunderstood that they gave up trying to extract useful data from it.

[emmteeyess]

I've seen a number of 1911 census entries with ALL children listed, including those who had died - conveniently crossed out on one census so that helped my research.
Also seen one where 3 of 6 adult children were crossed out and I've since found one on an Army census in barracks so my guess is all 3 will be away from home on census night but the head of household misunderstood the instructions and listed all his living children before being reminded not to.