General Chat

I have answered this one before. It is because their concept of age was unlike our own. It just was not as important to them as it is to us today. Also, the census,particularly the early ones are some of the most inexact records of peoples ages. Remember that most ordinary people were poorly educated and most could not read or write. The recorders were often only one step up from this and their records were more often than not their own interpretations of what they were being told. They often rounded up ages for convenience as they saw it. In my family my gt-gt-grandparents are 5 years apart in age at the time of their marriage. By 1881 they are the same age. Somehow it didn't matter. Also they often claimed to be born in different places. I am lucky because I have a very informative family Bible,in which all BMD are recorded,if I compare this with what the census is telling me, my relatives claim to be born at a number of different places on each seperate return. Confusing for us trying hard to sort them all out. Tell you what you try and do it when they all call their eldest sons Jethro and they all work for the family CoachbuildingGood Luck Rose Firm. It is chaos. Childs name...Fathers name Jethro...fathers Occupation Coachsmith. I could scream.Thank God for the Bible

Thanks for replying everyone! I am thinking of putting birth and death place as MARS!! I mean didnt she think that over 100 years later her great grandaughter would want to do the familey tree!!! She could have left things simple! LOL

Probably. Sod's Law says it will be the one you look at second.

So if a person was married in the name of Alice Elizabeth Ayling and put Elizabeth Ayling on her childs birth cert, do i have to search both forenames to find a birth and death cert?

Only the 1841 did this, over 15's were rounded down to nearest 5 but this was not always done. Many didn't know or couldn't work it out. Often it was where there was a large age difference in partners. Bob

hi kelly I think someone once told me that most peoples ages were rounded to the nearest ten on the earlier census returns, ie someone aged 47 was listed as 50 etc. jenny x

Hi Kelly, don't forget many people in 17 & 1800 couldn't read or write and many did not know exactly when they were born. Added to this early census records recorded ages to nearest 5 or 10 years. As for people using middle names or nicknames this was not uncommon , some of my ancestors did this , perhaps they didn't like their first names, other people in the family had the same name like their parents or close cousins. It adds to the headaches if you can't find someone. Added to this are the fact that census enumerators spelt names wrong or the people transcribing onto the websites have spelt it wrong.Both these have happened in my own trees. best wishes Hilary

I have only been tracing my familey tree for 4 months. I wondered why ancestors lie about there ages on census returns, i found one of mine saying he was 50 when infact he was 65. I have even found other ancestors useing middle names instead of there forenames on there childrens birth certs etc. Which has caused me alot of problems tracying her.I am starting to think she came to earth from a spaceship and left earth the same way!! ha Coz i cant find no birth or death record now. Can anyone please shead some light?? Regards Kelly