Before reading your reply, I was puzzling over my ancestor Alexander Sandilands born in 1808 according to his death record
Does the death record specifically say that he was born in 1808, or does it give an age and a date of death? If the latter, the actual date of birth could be a few years before or after 1808.
If this is Alexander Sandilands who died in Edinburgh in 1875 aged 67, what this means is that the person who registered the death believed that he was 67. Assuming that this is accurate, he could have been born in 1807 or 1808, depending on whether he had had a birthday in 1875 before he died.
In 1851 he gave his age as 43, which implies a birth in 1807 or 1808
In 1861 he said 52, and in 1871 62, which implies a birth in 1808 or 1809.
So you have a three-year window when he could have been born.
and wondering why I cannot find his birth entry. To add to the confusion, his supposed brother Adam Sandilands is born May, 1809. Adam and other brothers are registered before and after 1808 but not Alexander. Why can't I find an birth entry for Alexander?
The obvious answer is that the baptism record (if it ever existed) did not survive. There could be umpteen reasons for this
- the parents omitted to have him baptised
- they had him baptised but omitted to ensure that a record was kept
- the minister omitted to tell the session clerk that he had baptised the child
- the session clerk omitted to record the baptism in the parish register
being just a few of the possible reasons.
If the death was registered by a near relative, and it names his parents, and there are baptisms of siblings in the right area at the right time, and an inconvenient gap just where Alexander ought to be, I think it's safe enough to assume that these are the correct parents.
