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[Facts] Re: Nessie & May
in reply to a message by Bryce
If the rest of the details match,ie if they live at the address you know your relatives lived at,were the right age, etc then there is a probability that they are the same people. Census takers in the past usually wrote down the information themselves and sometimes names were mispelt, misheard or misread - so Nessie could become Jessie. Likewise it is feasible that May could be used as a nn for Marjory,but she would give her official name to the census taker.I suppose the only way to find out is to try and trace Jessie and Marjorie through another census, homeownership records,death certs,etc.
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I agree...I got distracted and posted my comment without really addressing your question. Sorry. The census records are notorious for inaccuracies, formal vs. nickname differences, etc. I also recommend looking at other census years and comparing the information because some census takers were more accurate than others, the residents had improved their English since the prior census, etc.
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