1901 Census Search - What am I doing wrong?

Promising match for Patrick and Norah in 1911 from the census on the National Archives of Ireland website :

  Lane household, Ballynahown townland

they are married 2 years which fits...but no children at that time

Do you have names and dates for their children ?

The Poor Law Union & Civil Registration District for this Ballynahown townland (there are three in all in Co. Limerick) is Kilmallock, the district is to the south west of Newcastle districy and covers parts of counties Cork and Limerick. Is Hanora informant on either of her parents deaths ?

I thought you might know at least one of the children's names.. do you know additional details of Norah's siblings (besides William & Ellen) ? Their details could help with the 1901 search...

Yes I think very likely your Hanora... there are only about 12 Patrick Lane marriages in all of Ireland between 1907 and 1910, and just two in districts that covers parts of Co. Limerick - one to a  Johanna Ruddle in Limerick (city) district and the other to Nora O'Keeffe in Newcastle district.

Ages vary quite a bit in official records, so not surprising to find an age five or more years 'off', people didn't need to know thier exact date of birth back then.

 

There only seems to be two reasonable matches for your Hanora on the 1901 census of about the right age - the others are all with parents etc., so can be eliminated.

The first is as 'Hanna' a servant to a Hunt family (1901 census) living at Cooleen townland (logainm - placename database), which is located in the south east of Co. Limerick, so not close to Templeglentane or Abbeyfeale etc. The second is 'Nora' a  servant to a Barrett family (1901 census) in Templeathea West townland which is quite close to both Abbeyfeale and Templeglentan. Both are a close match by age 22 and 23, the second is in the right area, so more likely

Your Nora is listed a farmer on the marriage record, so could fit with her working as some sort of farm servant after her parents died.

The census forms were filled in by the head of the household, so Henry Hunt or Thomas Barrett for these two returns, so they might not have known the exact ages of their servants.

Karen,

Regarding ages, in general, people in Ireland in the 1800s didn’t celebrate birthdays, didn’t have birth certificates nor passports (though they might sometimes have had a baptismal cert) and often had little accurate idea of their ages. Most ages on official documents were just a guess.

Alexander Irvine was born in 1863 in Antrim town and became a Minister living in the US. This extract from his book “The Chimney Corner revisited” perhaps explains why people often had to guess their ages:

“My mother kept a mental record of the twelve births. None of us ever knew, or cared to know, when we were born. When I heard of anybody in the more fortunate class celebrating a birthday I considered it a foolish imitation of the Queen’s birthday, which rankled in our little minds with 25th December or 12th July. In manhood there were times when I had to prove I was born somewhere, somewhen, and then it was that I discovered that I also had a birthday. The clerk of the parish informed me.”

I have a letter from someone in Pettigoe, Co. Donegal in 1908 writing to his Minister, asking for proof of age (ie a baptismal certificate). All he knew was that he was between “70 and 78 years of age.” He clearly had only the vaguest idea of his age and couldn’t narrow it down to within 9 years. (The reason for the letter was that the old age pension was being introduced in 1909 for people aged 70 and over. Documentary proof of age was required. Thus, probably for the first time in his life, establishing his age accurately became relevant to him).