I would appreciate thoughts on the following gravestone in the North Bute churchyard, concerning a single family, in which five (out of eight) of the dates of death are totally erroneous. The inscription (a very clear one) reads as follows (the asterisks have been added by me and are explained below): ~~~ Inscription begins ~~~ In memory of Archibald MALCOM died 18 June 1885* and his wife Jean Boyd MALCOM died 15 June 1919* Their family: Margaret died 6 April 1873* Jean died 14 October 1877* John died 17 January 1888* Mary died 14 March 1948 Gilbert died 6 February 1962 Annie died 24 April 1966 ~~~ Inscription ends ~~~ This family is well known to me, being well documented by birth certificates and census returns. The first two are the parents of the other six, the children being all unmarried (three married children and one other are omitted). My problem is that the dates marked with an asterisk are unsupported by the ScotlandsPeople site and proved after long investigation to be totally fictitious. The actual places and dates of death of these five were: Archibald, Lochgilphead, 31 Mar 1883; Jean (the mother), Port Bannatyne, 29 Jun 1920; Margaret, Port Bannatyne, 28 Jun 1881; Jean (the daughter), Port Bannatyne, 21 Mar 1882; John, Port Bannatyne, 13 Jun 1871. Archibald, a local boat hirer, died in the Argyll & Bute District Asylum, and I toyed with the thought that the earlier dates of death were supplied by him, at a time when he was mentally impaired. However, that does not seem very likely, as his own date of death is one of the erroneous ones, and two others postdate it. My questions are these: 1 Does anyone have a plausible explanation why five of these dates should be so completely wrong? - this is not just a matter of a few misread figures, the errors seem to be completely random. 2 Has anyone found similar mistakes elsewhere? 3 Is there any way of discovering when the gravestone was erected, and who paid for it? 4 Is there any authority that can or should be notified of this, to avoid misleading others?