Another thing to keep in mind about death certificates, when someone is asked questions while being under stress, it sometimes causes errors in memory. Bobbi ----- Original Message ----- From: "juliasgenes" To: <germany-passenger-lists@rootsweb.com> Sent: 04 April, 2011 4:29 PM Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Schroth-several questions > That's a rampant problem with my immigrants, too - death certificates and > obits give different birth dates than marriage documents, for instance. I > guess knowing your birth date just wasn't as important to them or they > didn't have the actual documents to remind them. All in all, I go with the > dates given on the earliest records - marriage certificates or birth > certificates for their earliest children - on the theory that the memory > was fresher then. > > The generation that was born in the USA seemed to have no problem with > date consistency.