Well, I have a little different slant on this subject. For each relative, I do every census year, not just the 190, and add that info to what's on the death certificate to try to determine which is correct. I have a "cousin" who was born in 1869. She was 11 in 1880 but in 1900, she was still single and suddenly her age was only 25, not 31. She remained "younger" all her life including her tombstone and death certificate. Kids don't always know when their parents were born either. All you can do is gather all the info you can and make an educated guess. Myself I think the first year one of our relatives is listed in any census can be fairly accurate. Only think that is good as gold is a birth certificate. I did the 1900 census for one of the townships in Barry Co. and found mistakes as you have mentioned but I typed the census info as I found it rather than try to guess whether the age or birth year was wrong. Happy Hunting! Judy Larry and/or Suzanne wrote: >Patricia & Wilma, > >You look at the date on the top of the census page as to when the >census was taken. That may clear up some dates for you. I have seen >some taken as late as Nov. of the year. > >Suzanne > >At 01:59 PM 12/17/2007, you wrote: > > >>Patricia, >> >>The questions asked about persons' age, differed in census years, and >>sometimes people would mis understand the question, so the ages and in the >>case of the 1900 census year birth month and year, it is not at all unusual >>to find errors. I will tell you that my personal belief is that censuses are >>valuable for locations of families on a certain date, and beyond that can be >>in error. Now, as to the death certificates, in most cases, although not all >> those were filed in close proximity to the death date, so the year is >>probably correct. The only exceptions I have found, is where the age of the >>person may be a "guesstimate" by the person giving the information. Even >>those can be in error on information, but I would tend to accept the year of >>death over and above a lot of the information contained on them. >> >>Wilma >> >>-------Original Message------- >> >>From: P.A. Topolski >>Date: 12/17/2007 1:18:07 PM >>To: mobarry@rootsweb.com >>Subject: [MOBARRY] birthdates >> >>Hi, I'm writing to ask if anyone besides me has encountered a problem >>with a one-year discrepancy between the birthdate listed on the 1900 >>census and a person's actual birthdate? For example, the census record >>says that a person was born August 15, 1882, but his death certificate >>says August 15, 1883. It's always that the birth month and day are >>correct but the year is off by exactly one year. Anybody else run into >>this situation? Patricia Topolski >> >> >>_____________________________________________________________________________ >>______ >>Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. >>http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs >>Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is Donna >>Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >>in the subject and the body of the message >> >>Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is >>Donna Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >>quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> > >Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is Donna Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > >

I will attempt to clarify my answer, based on years of studying censuses from all over the U. S., as well as abstracting many for Stone Co. Mo , a few years ago. A transcription or abstract must be "as written"! Each census year asked different questions as to age, birthdate, etc. There were many reasons that the information contained could be in error: 1. Who answered the questions? Was it the head of household, a spouse, child hired hand, neighbor,etc. ? 2. Was the question asked properly by the census taker? i.e. One year the question was how old were you your last birthday? This could be misunderstood easily, partly depending on the way the question was asked, and partly dependent on the "accent" or "dialect" of the questioner and responder. This is more apparent in earlier censuses and where immigrant settlements were. A "Swedish" immigrant may " hear" it differently than the German" immigrant questioner. This also applies to spellings of names, as one would ordinarily spell according to their main language rules. One must also remember that more people were illiterate as to the English language ( and even their own mother tongue) in earlier times. Most censuses can vary as much as three or more years on the actual birth year---sometimes more. The 1900 Census is the first U. S. Census that contains month and year of birth. I have noticed, much as Patricia did, that there seem to be a lot that are off by an exact year. This goes back to how the question was asked, and how the repondent understood it. As said before, a death certificate may also be in error, but usually ( the ones I have seen and have) there is either a wrong birthdate and an age at death. The age at death, if it contains years, months, and days, can usually give a different birthdate than the one stated on the d.c.( if there is any of the forgoing information provided). Because a death certificate (1910 and after in MO. ) is usually signed and sent in by an attending physician or funeral director, the date of death is usually correct. One must gather as many documents as one can, and in most cases use the preponderance of the evidence to come to a conclusion. Some may remember a discussion on this list concerning a tombstone, obituary, and death certificate that all were somewhat different on a death date. The obit and death certificate were in agreement, but the tombstone is completely different. Because two of the three documents agreed, those were the dates I went with. One site that may help you in understanding the questions asked each census year, is the following: http://www.censusfinder.com/census-questions.htm Wilma -------Original Message------- From: Judy Vietri Date: 12/17/2007 5:00:32 PM To: mobarry@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MOBARRY] birthdates Well, I have a little different slant on this subject. For each relative, I do every census year, not just the 190, and add that info to what's on the death certificate to try to determine which is correct. I have a "cousin" who was born in 1869. She was 11 in 1880 but in 1900, she was still single and suddenly her age was only 25, not 31. She remained "younger" all her life including her tombstone and death certificate. Kids don't always know when their parents were born either. All you can do is gather all the info you can and make an educated guess. Myself I think the first year one of our relatives is listed in any census can be fairly accurate. Only think that is good as gold is a birth certificate. I did the 1900 census for one of the townships in Barry Co. and found mistakes as you have mentioned but I typed the census info as I found it rather than try to guess whether the age or birth year was wrong. Happy Hunting! Judy Larry and/or Suzanne wrote: >Patricia & Wilma, > >You look at the date on the top of the census page as to when the >census was taken. That may clear up some dates for you. I have seen >some taken as late as Nov. of the year. > >Suzanne > >At 01:59 PM 12/17/2007, you wrote: > > >>Patricia, >> >>The questions asked about persons' age, differed in census years, and >>sometimes people would mis understand the question, so the ages and in the >>case of the 1900 census year birth month and year, it is not at all unusual >>to find errors. I will tell you that my personal belief is that censuses are >>valuable for locations of families on a certain date, and beyond that can be >>in error. Now, as to the death certificates, in most cases, although not all >> those were filed in close proximity to the death date, so the year is >>probably correct. The only exceptions I have found, is where the age of the >>person may be a "guesstimate" by the person giving the information. Even >>those can be in error on information, but I would tend to accept the year of >>death over and above a lot of the information contained on them. >> >>Wilma >> >>-------Original Message------- >> >>From: P.A. Topolski >>Date: 12/17/2007 1:18:07 PM >>To: mobarry@rootsweb.com >>Subject: [MOBARRY] birthdates >> >>Hi, I'm writing to ask if anyone besides me has encountered a problem >>with a one-year discrepancy between the birthdate listed on the 1900 >>census and a person's actual birthdate? For example, the census record >>says that a person was born August 15, 1882, but his death certificate >>says August 15, 1883. It's always that the birth month and day are >>correct but the year is off by exactly one year. Anybody else run into >>this situation? Patricia Topolski >> >> >>___________________________________________________________________________ _ >>______ >>Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. >>http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs >>Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is Donna >>Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes >>in the subject and the body of the message >> >>Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is >>Donna Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) >> >>------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >>quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> > >Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is Donna Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > Please tell us about your Barry county ancestors. The list-admin is Donna Cooper, address - (saarisr@sbcglobal.net) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MOBARRY-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message