Genealogy Chat

hi, i have found a death record for my grt grandmother. however, the age of birth is 10yrs earlier than hers - it does say abt though. would 10yrs be too much as an estimate on her birth? she was born in 1821 but death says abt 1811. does it depend on who registered her and how old she looked? the name and area match but its the birth that is bothering me.

Hi I've found that ages and approximate birth dates can fluctuate wildly from one record to another. I've someone appear as 48 on the 1871 census, 56 in 1881 and then 60 in 1891! The 1881 census shows my 4x great grandmother to be 10 years older than her husband (it says he's 73 and she's 83) which is impossible as it would have made far too old to have had her youngest child. If all the other details fit it's probably the right person and the date of birth has probably been copied down wrongly at some point. Regards Amanda

I found a few like that. sometimes they never knew the age or maybe they told 'porkies' when they got married. Marion

The informant for the death may not have known their exact age.

My grandmother would never tell anyone her true age. If asked, she always said 21. the informant might not have known the true age and made a guesstimate.

Just a thought - I have heard it mentioned that people didn't want the government knowing their business and as this lady was quite elderly at the time when the census records started to be taken, perhaps she thought her whereabouts could be traced. My great grandad was like that - 8 months in 1861, 10 in 1871, 18 in 1881, 29 in 1891 and 37 in 1901. He was illegitimate and by the time he was ten his mum was living with another man but not married to him - perhaps she thought they would look more convincingly like a married couple if she changed dates. Incidentally, great-grandad is described as a visitor in 1871, but a son in 1881. I think his 1881 age may be a little clue as to when his mum got together with step-dad. Sometimes you also get husbands lying upwards if they marry a much older woman. It could also be that the original records are copied down wrong when put on the internet. I just found someone tonight - the transcription said he was 50 but the actual image said 40. Just like information is only as accurate as the informant, transcriptions are only as good as the transcriber.