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  1. #11
    kesimmonds
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    *Peter Goodey*
    Just been reading a post of yours in "Family History general" subtitled 'consent of parent to marriage' posted 20/4/07.
    This could explain the discrepancy in the ages of William and Annie on their marriage certificate and subsequent census returns.
    Annie would have been about 15 (poss 16) y.o. when married if we go on her census returns, but she gives 19 on her marriage certificate. But as you say, once married, they were safe, and could reveal their real ages.
    A good possibility?

    keith

  2. #12
    jeeb
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    Hi Keith,
    When researching family history it is wise to remember modern day rules and laws did not neccessarily apply then, nor our advanced education system. I refer to your last statement about 'consent of marriage'. In 1880's a person could not marry under the age of 21 without consent of parents but the legal age for marriage was actually lower, 14 (12 for girls) with consent. You also wondered why their ages varied on the censuses, often people did not know their actual age to within a year or two and the same applies with their actual birth places too. Remember it is often someone else filling in the census returns or giving the information about other individuals, a large portion of the population could not read or write pre 20th century, look at the number of people who signed with a cross!

    Cheers Jeremy

  3. #13
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    Advice once provided to journalists on dealing with politicians was that the most important thing to remember was that "they lie, they lie, they lie".

    I often think the same advice applies to our ancestors. They may sometimes have had good reasons to lie and they rarely stood to gain much from telling the truth. In any case, people often had a pretty vague idea of how old they were. And don't forget that although men tended to age at the rate of 10 years per decade, this rule didn't apply to women!

  4. #14
    busyglen
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    Quote Originally Posted by jeeb
    Hi Keith,
    When researching family history it is wise to remember modern day rules and laws did not neccessarily apply then, nor our advanced education system. I refer to your last statement about 'consent of marriage'. In 1880's a person could not marry under the age of 21 without consent of parents but the legal age for marriage was actually lower, 14 (12 for girls) with consent.

    Cheers Jeremy
    I can vouch for the above, as my gt. grandfather said he was 19 on his marriage cert. but he was actually two days short of his 18th birthday. To get over this he said that his father was deceased....which he wasn't! His `wife' was also 19, but her father was very ill at this time, and assume her mother didn't mind.

    Oh what a tangled web we weave!! If only they knew what they were letting us in for!

    Good luck Keith.

    Glenys

  5. #15
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    Hi Kieth (kesimmonds) just found this thread and wondered whether you have found any more information regarding the two Williams? Apparantly we have the same Great Grandfather!

    Kind regards,

    Ron.

  6. #16

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    Good evening Ron, and welcome to the British Genealogy Forum.
    I’m sorry to have to point out that you have joined a very old thread (the date is top left on each message) and most of the contributors have left us (that’s why they’re tagged “guest” under their user names). We retain their messages in our archive as they could be relevant to others, but we are not allowed to retain personal or contact info, so be can’t contact them.

    The good news is that there’s a lot more data around now, so hopefully you can still make useful contacts.
    Enjoy!

  7. #17
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    Thanks Leslie, I realised it was an old thread but hoped at some point the originator may return for an update, a long shot but who knows! In the mean time I'll keep looking.

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