Genealogy Chat

I always knew my mental arithmetic wasn't perhaps as good as it used to be, but doesn't researching your family tree test it well and truly ? ie 'Person A' was x years old in 1881 that means he was born in y; his son was n years old in 1901 which means Person A must have been z years old when he/she had him etc etc Does anyone else find that their brain starts to flag horribly after a few too many calculations like this ? (Or am I the only maths thicko ?!)

I always keep a calculator to hand for just that reason!!

I find it very tricky especiallywhen you can't remeber which census had which age and end up 20 years out . Someone did mention they had a calculator for ages printed out on this site but I have scribbled notes with ages on everywhere and still get it wrong........... KIM

Most, if not all, Windows Operating Systems has a built in calculator you can place on your desktop to help with keeping things straight! Judy

Hi! For some reason, it's the '1' at the end of all the census returns that really throws me...if they had been taken in 1840, 50 etc then I would be fine!

Problem is you can't tell the year of birth from the census. It's either census year minus age or census year minus (age+1). This because of the April (usual) census. I don't suppose censuses taken on 31 Dec/ 1 Jan would have been much use !! Bob

I have a lot of rellies who were born on or around census nights - it's a right pain in the bum!

I tend to take the age of the person away from the census date and deduct another year as only 1/4 of the population were born in the census year (ie prior to mar 31st in that year). Works for me most times. Hope I am making sense. Karen

I use the birth date calculator at http://longislandgenealogy(.)com/birth(.)html (remove the brackets) and put the age at date of census instead of death age. It works great.

You can easily make up your own birth date calculator on any spreadsheet. Just put in 3 titles on separate lines: assume these are lines 1, 3 and 5 Census date Age Birth date Head a column "Data" assume this is column C In column C opposite "Birth date" put in the formula "=C1-C3" without the inverted commas. Now if you enter the census date (say 1881) in cell C1 and the age (say 50) in C3 cell C5 will display the answer 1831. Obviously you can enter the year of death instead of census date to get the birth year. If you want to assume birth/death before 31/12 then make the formula "=C1-C3-1"

Sorry Brian, it looks like a great formula but I just glazed over. That's what numbers do to a numeric dyslexic, like me. I sympathise with the original questioner and I too keep a large, claculator with big, clear numbers on it, on my desk. I will try your formula, Brian but, this is someone who found it necessary to marry someone who does maths as a job! Yeah I'm that hopeless.

I've heard some odd excuses for getting married, but why get a husband instead of a calculator?

Forget pencil and paper, forget calculators - I will hire out my hubby for £5 an hour to anyone who wants him for calculations (he used to be a maths teacher). He's also handy for translating kilos and stuff into pounds and ounces when we go shopping so I know what weight I'm paying my money for.

Hey, Trish, what a great idea! See, Brian, that's the reason. You can always hire them out when funds get tight. Hate to score points, Trish but mine shops for the food and then cooks it as well . How else would I have time to sit at my computer? I do have to do most of the decorating and ironing though, in case you think I get off scott free.