Difference in dates IGI and Census

[robie]

In the IGI I have  exact birth dates for a group of ancestors, however it is a 2 or three years out for the same people in the census information, which do you use?

Robert

[suey]

Hi Robert, welcome to Rootschat!

1) Make sure what the dates from IGI are - they could be birth dates or baptism dates

2) and most important! look to see if they are "extracted records" which means they have come from Parish Records and not "member submitted" which you need to be careful of, they could be pure guesswork on behalf of the person adding the info

3) Age's given in census can vary considerably so go with birth or baptism dates

Suey

[behindthefrogs]

You also need to remember that adult ages in the census 1841 were rounded down to nearest multiple of five.  Also that as most census were taken in early April you are more likely to get the right year of birth by subtracting the age plus one from the census year.

There were also many reasons why people adjusted the age which they declared in the census and for that matter on marriage certificates.  In particular where there is a significant difference between the ages husband and wife or one of them was under 21 when married but didn't want to get parental pemission.

David

[Bee]

It's also worth remembering that not all babies were christened as babies (does that make sense?)

I have one family group were the four children were all christened on the same date though the children's ages ranged from 1 - 8 years.

Bee