mistake on Anc**try ?

[wimsey]

not sure if this is a widespread error on Ancestry

in their 'England & Wales Death Index', where the date of birth is given, that date seems to have been "Americanized" i.e. day/month transposed

e.g. on the 1939 Register the date of birth of Malcolm Burslem Hill is 7 November 1935 (7/11/35)

but when he died in 2009 Ancestry gives his date of birth as 11 July 1935 (11/7/35)

this is not the only example I've found

[emeltee]

Not surprising as it is an American company based in Utah.

[Lesley Robertson]

Which Ancestry is it?

[Pam Downes]

It will obviously be a 'widespread error' in relation to this index.

If you scroll down the search page, you find this:

General collection information
This collection is an index of deaths recorded in England and Wales between 1989 and 2023. The information for the index was compiled from funeral directors' records and obituaries. The collection contains over 80 percent of deaths that have occurred in recent years, but coverage in the earlier years is lighter, so it is possible that your ancestor is not represented in this index. Images of the original documents used to create the index are not included in this collection.

Plus some more, which I'm not going to detail here, about who compiled the index.
I suspect that the index was compiled using just numbers for months (e.g. 05 for May, 08 for August, etc).
If Ancestry initiated the compiling of the index, then then are more likely to have used the American 'dating' system than the English one. Alternatively, they've just assumed that the index was compiled as per the American system and 'translated' the dates as such.

I think the way to view this particular index (England & Wales Death Index 1989-2023) is as a 'helpful hint'.
From testing some of my relatives, the years of birth and death seem to be accurate. Sometimes the birth day and month are correct; sometimes not - they mangled my mum's birth date the same way they mangled Malcolm's. And I haven't a clue where they got her death date from. It says 8 January, but she died on 24 August. The nearest guess I can make is that because in the American format it would be written 08/24, they've said the day would be the 8th, and as there is no 24th month have assumed that there is an error and just used January as the default month.
It's weird actually, as I've seen correct birth and death dates, but then one auntie has her birth date indexed as 2 February (actually born 2 July) and her death date as 3 January, when she actually died 1 March.

The index is also far from complete. I'm missing at least two uncles, two aunts, and two cousins.

[Pam Downes]

Which Ancestry is it?

I presume the index is the same whether you use co.uk, com, etc.
England & Wales Death Index 1989-2023.

[wimsey]

many thanks for all the replies.

Must be something wrong with my computer, I didn't receive notifications of the replies.