Just because duplicate sources agree does not mean that they are correct. My great-aunt has two tombstones–both indicate a year of birth of 1920.
Local records in the area where she was born indicate a year of birth of 1910, which is also consistent with her military and all census records.
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My grandmother doesn't know what year she was born in because the birth certificate that she got from the courthouse reads 1936 and the one I got from the same courthouse reads 1937 and everyone that would know the correct year is dead….so no, not everything is correct!
I have an ancestor who had no tombstone, so a few of us went in together to buy one for her. However, the relative who ordered the stone said our ancestor died in 1920 when she really died in 1914. I knew it was wrong the minute I saw it, but there was no point in mentioning it then. The cemetery has the correct info and hopefully if someone else looks at the stone, they will realize that it hasn't been there since 1920 OR 1914.
Michael, I'm curious. Would you care to explain why your great-aunt had two tombstones? Buried twice (reinterred)? One stone with a first husband, one with the second? Competing factions of relatives – our stone is better than your stone? One on a church wall and one in the churchyard?
One of Aunt Margaret's tombstones had her name and that of her husband on it–apparently erected some time after his death in the 1950s. Then after her death, her date of death was inscribed on their joint stone and a separate stone from the United States military was also erected with her name, birth and death dates, and the name of the military organization in which she served.