Genealogy Chat

Well actually it's the great great grandparents! Hopefully someone can help....

Alexander Milne Gordon b. 1868 and Mary Gordon nee Holohan b.1864 The last definites I know is they were alive in 1906 when they had their last child, James Holohan Gordon, and that they had died by 1950 when my mother was born. I'm also fairly certain they'd died before my grandad was born too, but were alive when his dad went off to war in 1914, so they probably died between 1914-1930. I checked the indexes from 1911 to 1950, took me a while and I only really found two that looked all that promising.... Alexander M. Gordon 62 uxbridge 3a 97 feb-march 29 This is more or less right age, though not exact he would have been 61, he was born feb 1868. However the location is out he was living in West Ham where all other events are registered in his family from 1895 on. AND Mary Gordon 55 west ham 4a 136 april-june 23 At least this time locations spot on, BUT the age is out, I know for a fact Mary was born in 1864 as I have her birth certificate. However she does give 1868, her husbands birth year as her birth date too on 1901 census, so perhaps this is her. What I basically wanted to ask is did they check the ages were correct when recording birth certificates? Or did they just record what family told them. Mary and Alexander were both born in Scotland not England if that is at all relevent. Also is there a reason why location would be different on a death certificate, I'm thinking maybe if he died at work, or in a hospital that wasn't local? Hope someone can help, because apart from these problems with them these two certs look promising but don't want to purchase unless I'm reasonably sure..

Do you mean the ages on death certs being checked against known date of birth? Death certs often have the age wrong by a few years,it depends how well the informant knew the deceased,(or what they thought they knew). As to place of death,the death should be registered in the district it occured,which as you say may not be the area the deceased lived in. Glen

Do you mean the ages on death certs being checked against known date of birth? Yeah that's pretty much what i was asking. I kind of guessed they wouldn't have due to the time, money, manpower and difficulty involved having to check every age against a birth cert, especially long before computers and databases etc. Just wondered whether there was any other way they checked or they just accepted what the family or informant told them? If so this is probably my great grandmother as I know she'd given her age wrong by same amount in the census. It seems weird people not knowing there ages, but then again I sometimes forget my own by a year or so and have to work it out from my birth date, and I'm not yet 30 even. So not that weird after all, especially for someone elderly, and way back then. She probably assumed she and her husband were same age roughly.

With regard to gt-grandad, he may have died away from home and deaths are reg where they took place, not in the area of residence. So, he could have been in hospital, staying with relations, had a fatal accident etc It's only fairly recently that Registrars have asked informants to take along birth cert when registering a death. Jay

Richard This may come as a great shock to you, but women frequently lie about their age! OC

really?...never ;)