Accuracy of a persons age on Passenger Lists

[darcilou]

Hi
Just wondering if anyone else has found an ancestor on a ships passenger list but the age given for them is inaccurate. I think I have found an ancestor on a ship from Liverpool to Montreal in 1913 but the age for her seems way off, Miss L R Rigby aged 15 in 1913 which means she was born 1898 but the Lydia Rigby I have in the 1901 census was born about 10 years earlier. I am near certain it's her but the dates just don't match.
Cheers
Louise

[Ladkyis]

Was teh fare cheaper for someone under the age of 21? It is easier to remember which year you are supposed to be born if it is ten years away from your ie 1888 instead of 1898 - and easier to mutter.

If Crippen could get Ethel le Neve on board as a boy then I am sure that traveling as a child was not uncommon.

[ibella]

I don't know about other countries but in Australia they were only allowed to come in under a certain age, so quite often the age was lowered, one of mine the difference was 12 yrs.
ibella

[ChristineR]

I don't know about other countries but in Australia they were only allowed to come in under a certain age, so quite often the age was lowered, one of mine the difference was 12 yrs.
ibella

To qualify for assisted passage, I think ibella means. They wanted younger people fit for work, so a lot of them knocked years off their ages. Even if they were paying their own way, a lower age gave them more chance of being employed on arrival.

And as with any lists, everything is prone to human error - I have heard stories of clerks copying lists down doing a column at a time, instead row by row, so as soon as you miss one age, everyone elses age has a good chance of being wrong.

Christine :)

[Peter Goodey]

Is there any chance they might be two different people?

[Betty Willson]

My ancestors it appears to me, always gave their ages as younger by far than they really were. On an unassisted immigration passenger list from England to Victoria Aust. in 1887,(when returning to Australia for a second time) my g. grandfather gave his age as 60 when he was really 70, my g. grandmother 50 when she was 55 and their daughter gave her age as 25 when she was indeed 31. How's that? Betty Willson

[Ed Bradford]

It is possible for the age to be wrong on a passinger list and for a lot of reasons: it was given wrong in error or on purplse, it was written wrong, it was written right but looks like the wrong age, and it could be transcribed wrong. .................Ed

[darcilou]

Thanks for the replies, I've definitely got the right person as it's an unusual name, also I got this information on findmypast.com and when I went to the Canandian archives online to view the actual document from the ship her age was correct but her mothers was still incorrect, younger by about 8 years or so!! strange...

[Ludovica]

All of my mother's cousins are cited younger than their age on the Ships Manifest for their journey. I assumed it was because the younger the passenger the cheaper the fare?