A journey: My American husband's great-grandfather, Patrick Skiffington, Donaghmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, was party to a huge fib about his age when the recruiting sergeant lopped off quite a few years when he was enlisted to fight with a Baltimore, Maryland regiment during the American Civil War. He was closer to 50 than 40, and as he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis maybe he wasn't agile enough to get up and run when his regiment was under attack at Harper's Ferry, as he fell on his bayonet and sustained injuries to his kidney area which resulted in his death six months later. His wife had to fight for a pension for him, which was finally awarded by the army three years later. See, "the truth will make you free!" and if he had not lied about his age, to make himself younger, maybe he'd have lived for another 20 years anyway. Maybe! I can only conjecture that he needed to join the U.S. Union Army for the pay as his wife, Bridget Kelly, appeared to be illiterate. One can only surmise the quality of life they might have had not being educated. I think Patrick could write, however. This twisted me around in trying to find out his real age, as you can imagine, but I still don't have documentation of his age, only what the U.S. Army records indicated how old he was (perhaps), and pension records which list his wife and children, but that's about the extent of the family "tree." It's all been by a process of elimination...Sherlock Holmes reincarnated...and how I wish! The U.S. army records were interesting in other ways, however, in describing what he looked like...height, colour of hair and eyes, but key things were left out, such as his parents... From this little bit and that little bit of information, we managed to trace his burial place to New Cathedral Cemetery, Baltimore, where he had been re-interred from Old Cathedral Cemetery, when Johns Hopkin's hospital bought the old cemetery. Another red herring was that Patrick was buried with a family by the name of Hardester, which meant nothing to us. The clerk in the cemetery office said it was quite common for unrelated people to share the same grave, especially if they were re-interred, as in this case. The grave was marked with a lair number, no name, no anecdotal information that he was a veteran of the Civil War. The record book in the cemetery had just the plot number and his name, and I believe the date of re-interment. We even went to Donaghmore once when I was home on holiday, to try to get more of a fix on old Paddy, but the priest said his records went back only as far as the 1870s, and that we should try to trace him through Dublin. I never followed up on that as it was going to cost a "wee packet" and at the end of the day, it could have produced nothing. If Patrick was about 47 in 1863, this would mean that he'd be born around 1816. How on earth would I be able to go back so far to confirm his birthplace, siblings, parents, etc? Any suggestions, please, as I've gone around in circles over the years trying to put Patrick where he belongs on the "tree!" Maisie -----Original Message----- From: Bill Epling [mailto:wepling@cox.net] Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 7:18 AM To: DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [D-G LIST] RE: Lying About One's Age Well my three, never married, Young great aunts lived with my grandfather and their brother (William Albin Young) until they died. I have them in a series of census records. They only seemed to age some seven or eight years per decade. My father lied about his age to get in the Army where he served for 33 years. Naturally having once lied on an important official matter he was stuck with the lie. His social security application (I have a copy in his handwriting), driver's license, etc. all show him to be a year older than his birth record. The birth record is known to be accurate. Bill Epling -----Original Message----- From: Dean Black [mailto:dcblack@sympatico.ca] Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2004 10:04 AM To: DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Lying About One's Age Tongue in cheek, of course, I lay this subject out knowing it is one better suited to the ladies out there, than the men. :0) In all seriousness, however, I have noted with quite interest the number of men who lied about their age so as to ensure a berth for their family and passage to Canada in the early 1800s. My own GGGGrandfather - Walter Black - is recorded as 40 years old, as he boarded the George Canning on 14 April 1821 for the Bathurst District in Canada. However, his grave marker cites a birth date of 1769. Clearly he was 53, and not 40. Are there any other stories out there that might shed some additional light on this practice? Was this the only reason why men would lie about their age? Kindest regards from Canada Dean Black ______________________________ ==== DUMFRIES-GALLOWAY Mailing List ==== FIND YOUR ANCESTORS http://www.directcon.net/tomas/Ancestry/index.html/