Census Sunday - the Manchester Percivals

Up until last weekend I  hadn't been able to find my 3x Great-Grandparents and their family in the 1851 census.  I had been looking for George Percival and his wife Sarah and possibly their daughter Alice who was born in 1851 in Manchester.

All that remains of Holbrook Street (2011)

I knew that a whole set of Manchester census records had been damaged in a flood whilst in storage at the Home Office and were considered to be 'unfilmable'. So I am very grateful for the hard work of the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society who have spent years deciphering and transcribing the entries. More recently, new technology has allowed a further batch of records to be deciphered.





I have now found the family's 1851 census return at Find My Past; they were living at 8 Holbrook Street, which fits nicely with the birth certificate I have for my 2x Great Grandmother Sarah in 1857.



Unfortunately what doesn't fit nicely are the ages of George and Sarah.  In the 1861 census, George is 63 and Sarah 43. In the 1851 George is 35 and Sarah 29. I've enlarged the water damaged image on Ancestry and it does seem to show Sarah as 29, whereas George's age looks more like 45. Their marriage certificate from December 1841 shows them both as 'full age', so that doesn't help much either!


I do have a census return for George in 1841, but I have never been convinced I had found the right one. The new possible year of his birth could help with that - or it could just hinder my search even more, especially as the ages in the 1841 census are rounded to the nearest five.


There are also other Percivals in Manchester at this time, so I look like slowly having to pick them apart till I find the right ones, which is going to take some time!  If anyone has any hints or tips on how to narrow it down so I can pinpoint George's & Sarah's (nee Annett) births I would be very grateful.

Other Manchester Percival posts:
The Manchester Percivals
Wedding Wednesday - George Percival & Sarah Annett
Mappy Monday - The Manchester Percivals. Part II