Could the date of birth on a civil death record be wrong?

[Planter30]

I'm currently trying to link the correct birth certificate to one of my ancestors. What helps is that I know where they were born, and what the name of their father was, for certain. I can tell roughly when they would have been born by the date of birth of his son.

I've extensively searched through births that correspond to the correct era, and there is absolutely only one person I can find who was born at the right village and had a matching father's name, around the right sort of time.

The trouble is, the death certificate of this ancestor gives an age that doesn't line up with the year of birth on this birth certificate, by about a two year difference.

Is it possible that age wouldn't have been recorded consistently back then, or can I rule this out as the wrong birth certificate?

[oldohiohome]

They are wrong more often than they are right. People didn't always know exactly how old they were, and their survivor who provided the information knew even less. I haven't seen too many that were exactly right. The farther back they were born, the worse it gets.

[Elwyn Soutter]

Information on a death certificate was rarely supported by documentation. It was just the informant’s best guess. As Oldohiohome has said, errors are common, and for someone in their 70s or 80s, I have often seen age errors of up to 10 years. Check the rest of the information on the certificate and if it ties in with what you know about deceased person, then it’s probably the right event.

[Sinann]

and if you can find the person's baptism as birth certs are also often incorrect, parents often fibbed about the date of birth to avoid late registration fines.

[Planter30]

Thanks everyone!

and if you can find the person's baptism as birth certs are also often incorrect, parents often fibbed about the date of birth to avoid late registration fines.

Is there any site where you can read through baptism records, or view scans of them?

[Elwyn Soutter]

What was the year of birth, the person's exact denomination (at birth) and their parish or townland?

[oldohiohome]

In general:
nli.ie for Catholic parish registers

https://www.ireland.anglican.org/cmsfiles/pdf/AboutUs/library/registers/ParishRegisters/PARISHREGISTERS.pdf

for availablity of C of I registers.

Others might know where the Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. records are. But as Elwyn mentioned, you will need to narrow down the location to a parish.

-- Ed H

[Rena]

I had the same problem.  Then I found the Scottish baptism record where the Catholic priest had written this in the column:-    "promised to marry in a year".  The little girl was given her father's surname as a middle name.

The couple married two years later and their daughter (who now had her mother's maiden name as a middle name) was always noted as being two years younger than she really was.