Lying about age to get married in New York 1910?

[IAFC55]

Hi

Does anyone know how easy it would be to do the above?

I have an ancestor that was born 21.06.1895, I am fairly certain I have found her getting married in NY in January, 1910, making her fifteen and a half. On the certificate her age is given as eighteen, the space for consent to her marrying by either parental or judicial consent is blank.

Would the authorities that be, just have taken her word for the fact that she was eighteen?

Regards

IanC 

[SLStephens]

Have you found her in the 1910 census?  What is her age there?

[IAFC55]

Hi

Yes, her age is given as 18 on there as well, but there is no doubt whatsoever that the 1900 census gives her birth as June 1894.

IanC

[jorose]

It comes down to whether anybody in the area knew her, really. A church wedding in a small town with banns called - hard to get away with lying.  A big city with lots of migrants - easy to get away with lying, and we see this in records time and again.

There was no standard way of proving your age in 1910. No such thing as photo ID, lots of people who didn't have birth certificates/baptismal certificates or didn't know where to go to get a copy - if they'd had strict rules about proving your age there would have been a lot fewer marriages!

[IAFC55]

Thanks Jo

Regards

IanC

[Erato]

It comes down to whether anybody in the area knew her, really. A church wedding in a small town with banns called - hard to get away with lying.  A big city with lots of migrants - easy to get away with lying, and we see this in records time and again.

There was no standard way of proving your age in 1910. No such thing as photo ID, lots of people who didn't have birth certificates/baptismal certificates or didn't know where to go to get a copy - if they'd had strict rules about proving your age there would have been a lot fewer marriages!

There are no marriage 'banns' in the United States. 

[brigidmac]

I have some female  ancestors whose ages given on boats were all a few years younger than birth records from  russia + school records in GB  . they seem to have stuck to these ages in 1905 NY census ,
For the older girls I wondered if being 22 +20 rather than 27 + 25 made them MORE marriagable

but what about  the 13 year old who became 10 and
the 8 year old in  was still only 5 on the boat  + in 1905 NY  census ...
..she kept the new ages throughout her life I expect her children would be surprised to know that she was nearly 90 + not 86 in 1987 !



I wonder if  once they'd stated age on boat they had to use those dates for Naturalization etc