Genealogy Chat

I have an ancestor who was born on St Helena in the South Atlantic and whose year of birth ranges between 1834 and 1838, as recorded in the censuses 1871, 81, 91 and 1901. The death index gives a date of birth as 1838 but the St Helena registers only have one baptism for a person of same name: 1824!! Is it possible that someone born in 1824 could possibly appear in the census as being born over a decade later?? Any opinions welcome as I'm sort of stuck with this. Richard

Richard Absolutely anything is possible in this game! However, death certificates are generally considered the weakest of information, because someone else gives the information, who can only say what they think to be true. Is there any obvious reason for him lying about his age? A much younger wife, perhaps? Did he marry in this country? Who does he say his father is? Does that fit with the baptism details? OC

There is always the possibility of a transcription error. Always ALWAYS check the image. Cheers...Paul

The larger the gap the less likely it probably is. Over 10 years is a big gap but people have always tended to be fickle about their age! Or sometimes in the past they maybe really didn't know for sure when they were born. Or maybe someone else filled in the details - they would have been even less sure. Just to give you the example of my gg grandfather (who was an educated man). He was born on 6 January 1811 and appears on the censuses like this: 1841 - 30 1851 - 50 1861 - 58 1871 - 60 Died 1 March 1881 aged 70 Presumably he filled in the census return and his wife and children's ages are all correct on every census!!!! I can't answer your question but hope this will help a bit! Anne

Agreed, Paul - I NEVER bother to look at the transcription - always go straight for the image! Anne

Exactly Anne I have loads of examples where the transcriber missed the 'm' next to a childs age. So someone could go from 9 months to 9 years old! LOL ... Paul

If you can find the person on an earlier census at a very young age it is likely to be more accurate, as there is less scope for errors. For example it is unlikely a two year old would show a six.years

Thanks for the replies! The information I have is as follows: Isabella Heaven (the woman who was born on St Helena) 1861 census age 28 year of birth 1833 1871 census age 37 year of birth 1834 1881 census age 47 year of birth 1834 1891 census age 57 year of birth 1834 1901 census age 64 year of birth 1837 1914 FreeBMD death records District: Tetbury Vol. 6a Page 524 age at death 76 year of birth 1838 I cannot find her in the 1841 or 1851 census as she was living overseas, either in St Helena or in Ireland. I cannot find a marriage record either, although I have the birth certificate of her first son, Robert Charles Heaven, which states that the mother's maiden name was Isabella Mealy. I recently heard back from the Witwatersrand university in South Africa and was told by their archivist that the only Isabella Mealey to be found in the parish regsiter for Jamestown was born August 18th 1824, baptised Oct 19th 1826 at St James' Church - daughter of John Mealey, St Helena Regt. and Mary his wife. That gives us a TEN year gap, at best. Is a decade an allowable error of margin? It seems extreme, even given how unreliable ages often are!! Richard

Richard, Don't forget that sometimes on the earlier Census, the age was rounded DOWN rather than up, sometimes by about five years. So your ancestors appear to have found the secret of eternal youth, lol Sue

Only the 1841 was rounded down, so that doesn';t apply here. The other possibility is that the baptism you have found is of an earlier daughter who died, and yours was named after her - very common. OC

One of mine had 3 sons all called Thomas after the older on died,covering 14 years, the youngest died too, they called the next son William and he lived to be 73!

my reading of this is that the same person declaring the last census entry also registered the death perhaps the husband whereas the earlier censi details were declared by herself

Yse, it's possible that there was an earlier daughter called Isabella. Unfortunately there's no sign in the parish register for Jamestown, St Helena of any other child being born of that name. And all the census records have St Helena, Africa as the place of birth :-( Oh well - thanks for the replies. I'll persevere and see what turns up. Family history is not something that can be rushed at the best of times! Richard