In their own write

If you have access to the 1911 census (which I do) you can look at photocopies of the original documents and see the handwriting of your ancestors. My great grandfather had cramped, fussy looking handwriting, but everything was precise and correctly spelled. He did make one mistake though; he was supposed to fill in the number of years married and the number of live births and living children--his wife had. Instead, he filled the details beside his own name, then crossed them out. His wife was not there. She was in an asylum. If he hadn't made this mistake I wouldn't know for sure that in 1911 he still considered himself married. I also wouldn't have answered that lingering question I have about whether Flora had another child before Violet--a child that she had harmed in some way.