Problem with ages in 1901/1911 census

I think we're all affected by this! I tend to take an average & then search a few years to get the birth; in the example you give I'd search between 1849 and 1852- and often a little outside this, if I still cant find them, just in case neither age exactly correct. I find that children's ages are more accurate between the censuses/ censes; once they got older maybe it wasn't as important? e.g. alot of my people are farmers who couldn't always read/write, I imagine they estimated this kind of thing.
Searching for four years might sound a bit annoying, but I have occasionally turned up siblings, so thats a nice bonus!

Wishing you well

Irishlad11 wrote: »

I'm researching my family tree at the moment and use I the 1901 and 1911 censuses quite a lot. However I've noticed with a lot of my relatives that the ages between the 1901 and 1911 censuses don't nesscerily increase by 10 years, for example I have a great great grandmother marked as 52 in the 1901 census but in the 1911 census she is marked as being 59........surely she should be 62 in 1911. I'm really confused about this since I don't know what age to believe in order to get their birth year...........anyone else effected by this and what should I do????

I read somewhere that people also aged themselves so they could claim the old age pension which was first paid in 1909;)

if your looking for birthcerts i found the best way is to search for 2 years before the year you think the person was born in and for 2 years afterwards, ive found people born 2 years before they " should" have been