A recent post prompts me to comment on the recording of an individual's year of birth. Frequently it is calculated from an age given in a census or death record for example, and common practice is to deduct the stated age from the year of the record to arrive at the birth year. But, is this correct?
Let us look at the English censuses; these are usually taken in March, so if someone was aged 8 at the time of the 1911 census then there birth year would be 1911-8=1903. But consider, the birth actually took place between March/April 1902 and February/March 1903, so the probability is that the birth year was actually 1902. Naturally, the odds on which year a person was actually born will vary according to the month of the event. All the major websites use the simple calculation when using the year of birth and death, so caution. The English 1911 census also adds a further field recording the number of years married and, again, the probable year of marriage would depend on the month of the census, in this case March so the calculation would be as given above for births. It is most common in users' databases for the owner to have used the simple calculation when recording a date which could, therefore be a year out. Mind you, given the honesty of people about their ages a wider variation is also quite likely. Ron Ferguson _____________________________________________________ Create your Website with Legacy, see Tutorials at: http://www.fergys.co.uk Includes the family tree for Alan J Grimshaw http://www.fergys.co.uk/Grimshaw/ For The Fergusons of N.W. England http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/fergys/ ____________________________________________________ Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
