Can a 43 year old woman pass for 24?

[davidpwcrowe]

So this is the daughter of James Johnson from my previous post.  I have no trace of her beyond the Scotland Census of 1891.  Her mother dies in 1892 leaving her as a 9yr old orphan.  I found her sisters Hannah & Margaret at an Industrial School in Kilmarnock in the Census of 1901.  Don't know what happens to Hannah after that, but Margaret is my Great Grandmother, she emigrated to Canada.

Attached is a marriage certificate from 1926, Her name, her birthplace, and both her parents match 100% - the only variance is her birth year - listed as 1902 instead of 1883 - a whopping 19 years.  I dismissed it for a long time but I'm coming around to it being a possibility considering how common it has been for young women to falsify their ages, sometimes by a decade or more. 

Regardless I can't find either Annie Johnston anywhere else, particularly in the 1901 census (The Annie from Calderbank living with her uncle Samuel is a miss - I purchased that record)  Thoughts?

[Wiggy]

Can a 43 year old woman pass for 24?

Seems highly unlikely doesn't it!           

 I wonder if there is a second generation with given names, named after the parents.     

Wiggy


Edit to add.
Unless her husband was happy to go along with the myth . . . .

[majm]

Yes, it is possible .. if the husband had eyesight problems ... but could there be some checks ....here are some rhetorical questions perhaps to consider ...

When she died, was her then age recorded on any offical documents... if so, does it match her m.c.?

Did she have children after her marriage .... if so,  for how many years after?

Did she wear hats with veils so her face was not on display to neighbours .... or her in-laws

JM

[GordonFindlay]

I'd have thought that it was more plausible that she lied about her age than tha all your other details happened to line up.

The test that I would pursue would be children's births. If she later claimed to have children at age 31 (but really 50) I'd reconsider.

Slainte
Gordon

[Erato]

Yes, it is possible.

[Wiggy]

Ah ha - I am outnumbered!   

[Erato]

When I went out to celebrate my 32nd birthday, the bar tender didn't believe I was over 18 and refused to serve me because I didn't have any ID with me.  This caused such hilarity among my companions that the bar tender was shamed into giving me a drink.

[LizzieW]

My g.gran, already the mother of 6 children, took 15 years of her age when she got together with my g.grandfather, despite it meaning she would have been about 12 when she had her first daughter.  On her death certificate, the informant my g.grandfather her age was correct!

[Forfarian]

Could the registrar have written the digits the wrong way round, i.e. it should have been 42?

What does her death certificate say?