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.
2 Responses
It is wise to check ages in as many census records as possible. My G-G-grandmother’s obituary made the newspaper because the family thought she was 104 years old! In tracking her through the available census years, her age was about 80. It’s obvious she was not the one providing the information to the census taker.
Just reviewed a death certificate of a great, great uncle that had his age correct but his date of birth was off by 10 years & one month. The informant was his son. It always pays to double check all dates against other records.