Why does Isabella’s place of birth vary in the records?
QMy great grandmother, Isabella Pearce (née Reynolds), was said to have been born on a boat crossing the Irish Sea, but I can find no record of this. Her birth certificate says she was born on 3 July 1875 in Belfast. An older brother John was born in 1872, also in Belfast, while her younger brother George was born in 1877 in Barrow-in-Furness, where the family had settled. Why do all subsequent records show Isabella as being born there, not in Belfast? Nigel Mapp
AIt was not unusual for adults to give the place they were raised in, thinking it to be their place of birth, on census records. Since Isabella was born in Ireland in 1875 and George was born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1877, she would have been a baby when the family came to England. You have found the family in Barrow-in-Furness in the census records for 1881. I found Isabella as “Bella Pearce” on the 1911 census, where she gave Barrow-in-Furness as her birthplace.
However, in 1881 Isabella’s brother John (aged nine) was described as being born in Barrow-in-Furness, but the 1891 census for the family shows an eldest son Thomas (age 19), born in Ireland. Unless there were two children born under a year apart, this is evidence of errors on one of the returns. The enumerator may have taken down information provided verbally in 1881, and made a mistake when copying the original householder’s return into their book.
Your next step is to piece together the evidence to support the most likely place of birth for Isabella. Start with the birth record for George Reynolds in 1877 to check it gives the same mother’s maiden name as the birth for Isabella in Ireland. Look at the various records that include a date of birth for Isabella: if the date on the birth certificate reflects the date on the 1939 Register and her death certificate, this is another piece of evidence in support of the Ireland birth being correct.
Karen Cummings