If an ancestor marries on 1 December 1901 and it is indicated that he was “of legal age,” on that date, then (if 21 is the legal age to marry) he was alive by 1 December 1880. Marrying, buying property, naturalizing, and other “legal acts” require a person to be of age even if their age is not stated in the document. Of course people will lie about their age, but that’s a separate tip.
Do you use your “real” name? Or do you use a diminutive based upon your first or middle name? Do you use a nickname? In the notes section of your genealogy software indicate why you used the name you did. Future genealogists and relatives might like to know why you used it. I have always used Michael, never “Mike.” This is largely because my family always called me Michael and mother always said “if I had wanted him called ‘Mike’ I would have named him ‘Mike.’”. And I always thought Mike Neill sounded too short to be an actual name–at least to my ears–probably the result of being half German where every name needs to be somewhat long and have a lot of consonant sounds. I started using […]
Children were not always named immediately. While modern practice is to name children at birth (if not before), this was not always the case for one reason or another. It is not uncommon to see “unnamed” or “baby” as the first name on a birth certificate. A couple may have waited until they could arrange for a christening to name the baby, because they could not decide, or other reasons. This post on our sister site looks at possible unnamed children in the 1880 United States census.
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