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Be careful drawing conclusions from an ancestor “making their mark.” It means that they made their mark. Sometimes the person signing a document: was told to make his mark even if he could write chose to make his mark even though he could write was physically unable to sign his name and making his mark was all he could do even though in years past he could write his name made a mark because that was all he knew how to do even though he was in fine health Be wary of drawing conclusions on your ancestor literacy based upon the presence or absence of one signature.
If a record gives a person’s age, remember: The age could easily be off by one year or more. if accurate, don’t just subtract the age given in the record from the year of the record. Someone aged 35 in 1870 could have been born in 1835. Or, if they turned 36 the next day and the year was still 1870, they were actually born in 1834. Concluding the age is accurate is always something to be done with good reason. I always use a year of birth calculated from an age in a record as an approximation of that year.
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