Girl or Boy adopted?

[vallee]

One of my husbands rellies seems to have adopted a child ?
in 1871 says Frances Mills aged 2 Nurse Child
in 1881 says Francis L Mills adopted Son ?
I sent for the Birth Cert and it says Frances Leah Mills GIRL
Born 2 July 1868 47 Page Street Westminster no Father named
Mother Anne Mills
Would she have adopted HIM HER legally ? as if so why is HE SHE still being referred to as Mills and not her adoptive name ?

Also why on earth would they think she was a he
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=uki1871&h=11006367&ti=5538&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t6737403_p285647165_kpidz0q3d285647165z0q2 6pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgPLz0q3dpid

[Phoenix]

There was no such thing as formal adoption in the 1800s. So the child might be known under a birth or adoptive name.

As for the sex, it may have been a hasty enumerator who didn't check and assumed the spelling was Francis and therefore must be a boy. (Best mate's rellie Florence is mistranscribed as CLARENCE and so appears as a son. Took us till the next census to work that out, as in subsequent certificates she knocked about eight years off her age!)

Can you find Frances/Francis on any subsequent census?

[Merry]

Also why on earth would they think she was a he
http://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=uki1871&h=11006367&ti=5538&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t6737403_p285647165_kpidz0q3d285647165z0q2 6pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgPLz0q3dpid

On that census they thought she was a girl! Ancestry have decided Frances was male but the folio has female. It's the following census they have her listed as male.

Most likely it's just a mistake, like OH's relative Arthur Cotton who was listed as Martha Cotton, female, on his first census (his birth was registered Arthur though). But there are a few people born whose sex is difficult to determine, so there's a very slight possibility that was the case here, though probably unlikely.

[vallee]

thanks both ,