Genealogy Chat
Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!
- The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
- You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
- And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
- The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.
Quick Search
Single word search
Icons
- New posts
- No new posts
- Thread closed
- Stickied, new posts
- Stickied, no new posts
How likely is a mistake on a marriage certificate?
Profile | Posted by | Options | Post Date |
---|---|---|---|
|
InspectorGreenPen | Report | 4 Aug 2009 17:25 |
I have found that ages can be a big problem, with variances of up to several years. However don't get too complacent and always assume there is an error - you could be looking at a completely different person.....! As ever, always try and corroborate with alternative information. |
|||
|
Chrissie2394 | Report | 4 Aug 2009 16:37 |
I found someone who was shown as the same age in consecutive census's. I've also found quite a few others whose ages don't tally in the following census. |
|||
Researching: |
|||
|
Potty | Report | 4 Aug 2009 16:33 |
It's not just ages that can be different between certs and census, surnames can be too. One of my greatgrandfathers got married as Lynock and on the census two years later was Lines. His brother got married as Lines and my greatgrandfather was a witness, also as Lines. All their children were Lynock. |
|||
|
Christine | Report | 4 Aug 2009 12:46 |
My mother-in-law reversed her names on her marriage certificate - on her birth certificate she was Florence Eva, but her marriage cert says Eva Florence. |
|||
Researching: |
|||
|
AllanC | Report | 3 Aug 2009 18:05 |
Some marriage certificates don't give ages at all - they just state "of full age". A neat way out if they weren't sure of, or wanted to conceal, their age. |
|||
|
Margaret | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:40 |
I can't find Annie on any 1891 census Shirley, but on the 1881 she is listed as Louisa & the birth year tallies. Both families appear to be living on the same street too! |
|||
|
Helen in Bucks | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:38 |
Very common to have errors on ages. Often because people weren't sure themselves how old they were. |
|||
|
Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:32 |
They may well have adjusted their ages for the marriage because of the big age difference IF this is Annie on the 1891 then the 1901 census age is about right |
|||
Researching: |
|||
|
brummiejan | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:29 |
The other thing to remember is that the info. was gathered and written by someone else, not the householder, so all sorts of mistakes happen. When you find your family on several census reports it often becomes clear that these are just errors. One of out lot moved around quite a bit and had 10 children - so they got all the right birthplaces but not necessarily in the right order!! |
|||
Researching: |
|||
|
Margaret | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:28 |
Thanks Jonesy & Shirley, the ages on the 1881/1891 census tally with the 1901 so I'll assume they lied about their ages for some reason when they got married - always good to get a second opinion. |
|||
|
Shirley~I,m getting the hang of it | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:21 |
Have you looked for them individually on any other census. Ages can be out on census and marriage certs depending on the info they want to give. I have one census where the relation ages 15 years from one census to the next and then when he died between then and the next census his age dropped back again but was still his age given was two years out, People often couldn't read or write and would get confused with numbers as they weren,t able to count either. |
|||
Researching: |
|||
|
Margaret | Report | 3 Aug 2009 17:11 |
Just wondering if I'm looking at the wrong family! Or did they lie about their ages? Or is it just an error? |