Genealogy Chat

Please can someone advise me on how accurate the age on a death certificate would be in 1905 please. One of my family members William Clarke is listed as being 67 which takes his birth to 1838 but on the census forms it differs all the time, if he could not tell them on the census forms when he was born how can they know this for the death certificate.

I would think that the age at death is only as good as the information given by the informant and that would depend on what they knew about the deceased.
Don't forget many people did not actually know their own dob, just guessed.

Thought so, thank you for your help, he had lots of children and was a coal miner so probably not educated in any way.

When you come to think of it, how accurate are any records.

I have come across a baptism for one of my ancestors, according to the parish records it took place on February 30th 1879. I had staff at the records check it for me in case my eyesight was playing up but no, four baptisms all took place on a date that does not exist.

Chris

When he appeared in census forms when he was married with children (I know I have the right family) he lists his birth as 1844, which would not make him 67 in 1905 when he died, I cannot find a marriage certificate for him and his wife so cannot track early years for him to see if there is any difference, he then disappears in 1891 and reappears in 1901 with a different year for his birth.

A man on my tree declared he was 58 when he married for the 3rd time, but parish records show him to be almost 10 years older than that.
Consequently when his wife registered his death, she was 'out' by many years.

Gwyn

Census records from 1851 on can be as much as 2 years out.


The census asked how old a person was on census night ...................... the age they gave was then changed to year of birth when the records were transcribed within the last 20 or so years.

If a person's birthday was the day after or day before the census, then they would already be one year out on transcription


Ages of most people over the age of 15 on the 1841 Census were rounded down to the nearest 5 ..... so year of birth can be as much as 4 years out.


The only information on a death certificate that you can guarantee will be accurate are;-

date of death
cause of death
address of deceased at death
name and address of doctor/coroner
name and address of informant
possibly, relationship of informant to deceased


Everyhting else on there is based on what the informant knew, and thus on how truthful the deceased was in life.


sylvia

I had a great great grandmother in Newcastle who regularly knocked off five years from her age in census returns from 1851 to 1881! Her son Robert my great grandfather did the same when he was married in 1880 by giving his age as 26 when he was in fact almost 30. Mind you his bride was only 19 so perhaps he did not want to be called a baby snatcher!
The moral is to treat all info on BMD certs as probably correct but do not depend on it!

Mike S