Are mistakes in age common?

[Londonwhay]

I have a birth certificate for Emily WHAY, born 21 Sept 1894. I also have a marriage certificate for her, marriage took place 24 September 1916. This states her age as 21. Now unless my maths are wrong I make her age as 22 when she got married. Is it possible that she 'forgot' she had a birthday a couple of days before her marriage? Or is this kind of error common?

Glenda

[Guy Etchells]

Yes very common but in this case not at all surprising as she would have given her age when arranging the wedding banns or licence and it would simply be transfferred to the register.
Cheers
Guy

[Londonwhay]

Can't you just tell I'm new at all this!

Thanks folks, I'll stop worrying about it now. :)

Glenda

[Terry Waters-Marsh]

Can't you just tell I'm new at all this!

Thanks folks, I'll stop worrying about it now. :)

GlendaErrors in age, as Guy stated, are quite common. The further back you go, the more likely you will find the errors. Part of the reason is the illiteracy rates among the people - the further back, the higher the illiteracy rates. Also, most people judged their lives around the seasons rather than on calender days/months. This is still common in farming communities today. As such, calender months were not taken much notice of and it would be easy to slip a year or two every decade of a person's life.

Sometimes people put their age 'up', for instance, to enlist in the armed forces, or 'down' for vanity reasons. My grandfather lived with a defacto for the last 28 years of his life. When he died, she was the informant for the death certificate and she gave his age as 72 when in fact it was 78. For middle-aged single men, 42 is far preferable to 50! His mother did the same when she was widowed and remarried although she only knocked 2 years off her age (51 down to 49).

Finally, there is straight out administrative erors. My own birth has been officially recorded on two different days. The short-form birth certificate has the correct day as the fourth (4th) but the long-form birth certificate records the birth as the fourteenth (14th). Strangely, the long-form certificate was typed on the 14th as well....:rolleyes:

[Londonwhay]

Errors in age, as Guy stated, are quite common. The further back you go, the more likely you will find the errors. Part of the reason is the illiteracy rates among the people - the further back, the higher the illiteracy rates. Also, most people judged their lives around the seasons rather than on calender days/months. This is still common in farming communities today. As such, calender months were not taken much notice of and it would be easy to slip a year or two every decade of a person's life.
LOL, if you look at my personal profile you will see I have another all consuming interest. (have I room in my life for two? :) ) With the other interest dates are all important. One day, when I'm better at this one I hope to combine the two. So I better get good at finding actual dates.

Glenda

[Geoffers]

I have a birth certificate for Emily WHAY, born 21 Sept 1894. I also have a marriage certificate for her, marriage took place 24 September 1916. This states her age as 21.
My dad told me that all ladies are 21, or are you saying he lied to me???

Geoffers

[Londonwhay]

My dad told me that all ladies are 21, or are you saying he lied to me???

Geoffers
Geoffers. your dad was obviously a very wise man. ;)

Glenda

[John]

To add a serious note to this thread, before civil registration, and even after, age would be largely dependent on memory. I hold my hands up, if you ask me how old I am, I'll have to stop and work it out to give you an accurate answer.

John

[Terry Waters-Marsh]

To add a serious note to this thread, before civil registration, and even after, age would be largely dependent on memory. I hold my hands up, if you ask me how old I am, I'll have to stop and work it out to give you an accurate answer.

JohnQuite true John but in your case, it may have something to do with where you live. I believe it was Reg Revans, the founder of Action Learning (and a Manchester resident) who quipped, "Manchester is the only city in the world whose residents are never homesick when they leave it." :D

[John]

Quite true John but in your case, it may have something to do with where you live. I believe it was Reg Revans, the founder of Action Learning (and a Manchester resident) who quipped, "Manchester is the only city in the world whose residents are never homesick when they leave it." :D

.
But Terry, I moved away from Manchester 20 years ago, an I was home sick every flippin' minute. I moved back last month, I'm living in one of the most depressing areas you can imagine, but I'm not home sick any more.

John

[Diane Grant-Salmon]

Our Ancestors were very inconsiderate if they lied about their ages! My Grandfather's Marriage Cert said that he was aged 23 in 1912, so I spent ages looking for his birth in 1889.

I was a newbie then and I couldn't understand why I couldn't find any records, but on the purchase of his Death Cert showing his age, I did manage to find his birth.

He was born in 1884 ...... must have decided to deduct five years from his age as Grandma was aged 19!

[Neil Wilson]

My GGGF (I Think) was even better, not one of the records showed a definite year of birth. I have him being born from 1790 to 1800 according to censuses, marriage and death certificates, only trouble is that there is seven people born in that time frame who could be him.