Often there will be someone extra in the household. That could be an unrelated person such as a Servant, Boarder, Lodger or Visitor, although sometimes such people do turn out to be connected to the family in some way. Of more obvious interest is a bonus person who is clearly related, such as a Grandmother, Grandfather, Grandson or Granddaughter.
Occasionally I have seen a Cousin included in a household - if you have not already looked at "The Cousin Explainer" (Cheer's Cousin!) I recommend it to you now. More frequently I have come across examples of a Nephew or Niece to the Head of the household. The choice is to ignore them, make a note for reference, or go ahead and try to place them on the family tree in their own right.
To add a niece or nephew to the family tree it is necessary to identify at least two relationships - whether the line is through the Head or Wife, and whether through a brother (father to the child) or sister (mother to the child). In my experience, I have found it best to consider the easiest options first but remain open to the possibility that there may have been remarriages, changes of family name, variants of first name, errors, missing records or unmarried mothers.
In the 1881 census, the household of Henry Long and his wife Elizabeth Long includes three children: George Long - Son, William J Rowe - Stepson and Susan M Shergold - Niece. Now, remembering that the relationships recorded on the census should have been relative to the Head of the household, my first thoughts were:
- George is the son of Henry and Elizabeth.
- William is the son of Elizabeth by a previous husband.
- Susan could be either Henry's brother's daughter, Henry's sister's daughter, Elizabeth's brother's daughter or Elizabeth's sister's daughter.