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Archiver > TMG > 2009-09 > 1253654542


From: "Janis Rodriguez" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Conflicting birth dates
Date: Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:22:22 -0400
References: <000CC090091608312F3B002004@Judy-PC><7C4FEF9583CF4F3689267C1EEF7F0B66@aputer>
In-Reply-To: <7C4FEF9583CF4F3689267C1EEF7F0B66@aputer>


Don't forget you do not know who answered the census taker's questions.
Could have been a mother-in-law, a child, a neighbor, a husband who never
focused on the actual year of birth, someone who could not read or write or
do sums, etc. Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:] On Behalf
Of ginnyb
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 11:23 AM
To: ;
Subject: Re: [TMG] Conflicting birth dates

I, too, have had the problem of multiple possible birth dates, on census
records. It does seem, though that the ages on census records can be wildly
wrong. One problem seems to be that people actually didn't know how old they
were. It just wasn't important for the most part. In the 1900 census I see
a phenomenon of the month being correct in many cases, but the year is off
by one year. It seems a mystery, that folks can't subtract, but it happens
fairly often. One clue I have found that seems useful is to use the earlier
census age as a bit more reliable. When I actually get to establish a birth
date, by birth or church records, I find that a person seemed to know how
old they were, earlier on, in life, and as they got older, things got
fuzzier (that's a genealogical term :).
Regards,
Ginny



----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Madnick" <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 8:49 AM
Subject: Re: [TMG] Conflicting birth dates


> From: "Lindsay Graham" <>
> To:
>
> << I support Darrell's approach. I too have only one Birth

> Tag per
> << person,
> << with sources for each possible date and additional
> << explanations (if
> << needed) in the Memo field.
>
> Sounds like a good plan. In many cases, the issue is simply the month that

> the census was taken -- before or after a person's birthday. So in many
> cases the difference is just one year, the problem being that I don't have

> the month of birth.
>
> Thanks for your input!
>
> Judy
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