Genealogy Chat

I have a copy of my g-grandparents marriage cert. Age of g-grandfather given on cert as 23 in 1897, i.e. born 1874/5, however 1901 census has him born 1864/5 which would make him 32 when he married in 1897. Is this possible? Should I trust the census or the marriage cert? I think I have traced him back with birth year of 1865 on 1891, 1881 and 1871 censuses, can't find him at all on census in Ancestry if I use birth year of 1874/5.

I have come across this with my gt grandfather too. I can only guess that as he was much older than his bride he knocked a few years off. im convinced mine did this. Brenda x

My grt grt gandfather was in fact 28 years older than his bride- it appears he never told her his correct age, as it is wrong on the death cert (wife was informant) and only 20 years older than her on each census. on the marriage cert it just says full age. Kim

As a marriage was a 'public' event and no proof of age or name was asked for they could say what they liked ! So they changed their age if it suited them and often their name if they were already married as a divorce was hard to come by.

thanks, sounds like there could have been a bit of fibbing going on - I just wondered as the age on cert is 23 and if I believe the census it would have been 32 whether someone at the time just wrote it down wrong i.e. transposed the numbers - has anyone else come across this? Helen