Genealogy Chat

21 or over usually Sheila

JUST RECEIVED A MARRIAGE CERT. DOES NOT HAVE AGES ON BUT SAYS 'OF FULL AGE'. WOULD THIS MEAN 18RS?

CHEERS

Although ... it can be younger than 21 if the parent(s) gave their consent ... just to confuse things for you! This happened on one of mine and it completely threw me off the scent for a while! Jill

or if they lied

But if its younger, it would give the actual age. And of course it can be any age of 21 or over - they could be 90 and still just have of full age on their cert!

I'd have thought so too Heather - but I had one that said both were of full age - whereas they were both about 19. I read somewhere that they could say of full age if the parents gave consent. I'm just glad that most of the time on most of the certs it says their age (roughly!) as of full age is a completely useless piece of info! Jill

The ones I have under 21 always give the actual age, even when the parents have been present as witnesses. But as we all know, in this hobby there is nothing set in stone!

One of mine (age 22) married a 15 year old who was down as full age. They ran away from London and married in Yorkshire without the parents even being aware.

My one was a marriage in about 1839 - The later ones tend to be a bit better about stating ages. Mind you, when my gr grandfather married for the third time his wife put 'of full age' - and she was most definitely - she must have been about 55 at the time! Jill

and the ages on some of the death certificates are almost laughable

I never rely on ages on marriage certificates - or censuses for that matter! I would guess that 50% plus of them for my ancestors must be inaccurate and a significant propoortion can only be described as lies! The only ages I come close to trusting are those for VERY young children at a census. If they are recorded as x months or weeks... it's usually right. After that, it's anyone's guess! I have one family - admittedly they had a lot of children - where the census enumerator clearly wrote down the children's names and then just started at the bottom (age 1) and added a year until he got to age 10 for the eldest. The youngest was correct! The others weren't even in the right order! Lin

I suppose its understandable that death certs can be wildly wrong - especially if the son in law or someone not even related gave the info. I can imagine my husband just guessing at an age for any of my rellies! I had one couple who married in Stepney in 1868 - she was about 4 months gone at the time. I knew the husband was only 16 but on the cert it has 'of full age' crossed through and then 19 put in the box. Now that kid must have looked old for his years, mustnt he! Both fathers signed as witnesses.

Thanks- I agree there are lots of 'exagerations' of the truth Just got marriage cert. from my husbands grandmother. Every-one asumed she was born 1903, even marriage cert gave her a 1903 birth- but I could not find it anywhere. On contacting local office about an Annie Isabel in 1895 she confrimed this was the right one !