The accuracy and precision of birthplace reporting in the 1851-1911 censuses: Place as a component of identity in nineteenth-century England and Wales
The accuracy and precision of birthplace reporting in the 1851-1911 censuses: Place as a component of identity in nineteenth-century England and Wales
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DOI：
10.1002/psp.2537
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发表时间：
2021-11-04
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Day, Joseph
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Day, Joseph
如果要使用个人层面的人口普查数据分析1851年至1911年之间的移徙情况，就必须证明个人的出生地得到了可靠的记录。然而，现有的研究主要关注的是确定绝对误差的水平，而不是如何引入这些误差。通过评估1851-1911年人口普查不准确的决定因素，本文发现，虽然出生地总体上报告准确，但确实存在的错误不仅是有关个人的错误，也是户主的错误。负责填写人口普查表格的人，以及负责将原始手写表格转录为机器可读格式的人。通过证明个人确定其出生地的能力是其年龄和从出生地迁移的距离的函数，而不是其智力或对其出生地本身的熟悉程度，表明个人准确确定其出生地的能力是其出生地在其生活中的相关性的函数。因此，本文认为，个人的能力，以确定他们的出生地反映了其作为一个组成部分，他们的身份，变得越来越不相关的进一步从它成为，但越来越相关，因为他们的年龄。
If migration between 1851 and 1911 is to be analysed using individual-level census data, it must be proven that individuals' place of birth was reliably recorded. However, existing studies have primarily been concerned with establishing only the level of absolute error, rather than how such errors were introduced. Through assessing the determinants of inaccuracy in the 1851-1911 censuses, this article finds that while birthplaces were generally reported accurately, the errors which did exist were not only the fault of the individual in question, but also of the householder whose responsibility it was to fill in the census form, and of those charged with transcribing the original, handwritten schedules into a machine-readable format. By demonstrating that individuals' ability to identify their place of birth was a function of their age and the distance they migrated from their place of birth, rather than either their intelligence or familiarity with their place of birth per se, shows that individuals' ability to identify their birthplace accurately was a function of the relevance it held in their lives. Consequently, this article argues that individuals' ability to identify their place of birth reflected its role as a component of their identity, becoming less relevant the further from it they became, but increasingly relevant as they aged.