Hi everybody, As we all know the ages quoted on censuses can be all over the place and the ones on a death cert also do not always simplify things. If an elderly person’s relatives weren’t sure of their age at death (ie people born pre registration), do you think it would it be likely for them to refer to the baptism date to get their age? I am not sure if all baptism documents mentioned the actual date of birth, as they do not always in the registers. ie I have someone born in 1791 but they were not baptised until 1797. The age at death on one entry I have found agrees with the baptism date but none agree with the birth date, so I am wondering if this is the person I am looking for. The censuses were a mixture of the two! Thanks for your help. Juliet

<<snipped>> I am not sure if all baptism documents mentioned the actual date of birth <<snipped>> Highly unusual for any baptisms from the 1790s to mention birth dates (Witton chapelry excepted, for one). Some parishes had barely accepted that the mother's name might be useful. <<snipped>> If an elderly person's relatives weren't sure of their age at death (ie people born pre registration), do you think it would it be likely for them to refer to the baptism date to get their age? <<snipped>> Personally, I'd be dubious about their ability to get to the baptism register. If you were called upon to register a death in the mid-1800s, there must be a distinct possibility that you wouldn't even realise you'd be asked the age of the deceased. So if you were asked in the course of the registration, would you really volunteer to trot off down to the church? Would the registrar think that a good use of his time? Or is it more likely that the registrar will say, "Well, roughly how old...?" And if you knew beforehand that age was a question to be asked, how likely are you go to the church beforehand, find the clerk and get him to open the parish chest and stand there while.... Or, again, are you likely to think, "Well, if I don't know, who's going to know better?" And do a best guess.... All of this is a guess on **my** part - however, it's important to understand that most of our ancestors were nothing like as obsessed with paperwork and dates as we have become. So the fact that one candidate's age hits the years-from-baptism nail on the head is, I suggest, most likely to be simply coincidence. It might **not** be coincidence - but the only safe thing to do is assume that it is coincidence, and try and sort things out in other ways, such as looking at names of informants, and what happens to the other candidates, etc. Good luck... Adrian B