RootsChat.Com

Quote from: coombs on Monday 22 April 24 16:27 BST (UK)

I have one who wed in Norwich in 1725 and she only had 2 known children, maybe she was about 35 when she married. I found a likely burial in 1768 aged 80, so born c1688. Then again we should never wholly rely on ages given in records, especially ones that have a "landmark" figure age at burial like 70 or 80, maybe the informant estimated their age.

Even now, you cannot trust ages, or many other "facts", on death certificates, as they are only what is known to the informant.

My grandfather died in 1963, he had always told us his birthday was on Christmas Day, and he was a certain age. That is what his son declared to the Registrar.

Nope, he was born on January 9 and his age was about 2 years out! But that was only found out later.

I believe that all you can expect to be true on any death certificate, up to the present day, is .....

Date of Death
Place of Death
Cause of Death
Doctor's Name
Coroner's Name (if there)
Name and Address of Informant (hopefully)

All else is only what is known to the informant, and must be checked out very carefully, if possible.

Very much so. I have one ancestor's cousin who died in 1985 and the DOB was given as 30 January 1915, but the birth cert says 27 December 1914.

I even have a step uncle born 8 November 1964 whose funeral service card says born 1 September 1964. However he said his birthday was in November and his birth was registered in the last quarter of 1964. He was of Jamaican parentage and the first of the children of the couple born in England, and his mother born 1 June 1929 and older sister 1 Feb (about 1959 or 1960), so bit of a coincidence they all had birthdays on the first of the month. I would go with the 8 Nov date, and more reliable than a funeral service leaflet, especially as he said his birthday was 8 November.

There is also the myth about women marrying at a young age, i.e. under 20.  I find most brides in my family range from 20-24.  I think this myth might have originated in the USA where brides might have skewed a bit younger. 
Puberty happened later in the past, so young mothers of 15-16 are rare, most of the births without marriage seem to be hovering around 20 and even older.

Also it is wrong to assume in the pre census and BMD era that a woman was around 20 when she married, if there is no other record of her age, a woman in say 1750 who had children after marrying could have been up to the age of 35. If she had just 2 or 3 children, it could be she married later in life.

Another myth debunked is when people say "the census will give which cottage our ancestors lived in then". Maybe more likely in later census records but not so much in earlier records, and even for later records you still have to do a bit of digging to find where in the village or hamlet the cottage/house/farm was. In cities it was easier as houses were numbered more often and streets named.

I have a friends birthday to go to on 10th May so 12th May I will probably be writing down

"Day 1 million of trying to find the origins of my 3 ancestors who said "not born in county" in 1841 census but died before 30th March 1851".