Re: Inmate

Peter Goodey wrote:
On Thu, 2009-09-17 at 08:27 +0200, Steve Hayes wrote:
It seems strange to describe the father of a child as an "inmate".

If the informant was someone unrelated to the deceased who happened to
live in
the same house, that would not be so surprising, theough "inmate" does
have a
more "institutional" feel, where "inmates" are distinguished from
"staff". In
a commune, where the people sharing a house are not related to each
other,
they could be described as "inmates" on a census form, but it seems
unusual to
refer to relatives in that way.


The word used was simply following that used in the relevant law. What
was stated on the certificate was the qualification for acting as
informant. Later (1875?), the relationship was also shown - eg "Father
and inmate".

I've only ever come across it used in an institutional sense before. I can see that it could be used as a literal "fellow inhabitant". But if that was the case, I would have thought there would be a few others who had similar examples, even if only 1 or 2 registrars used the term for a short period!
More digging, I think ...
Thanks for sharing your ideas and experiences
Ruth
.

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