My brother who had started me on the genealogy path, felt it had to do with life insurance. The younger the person the cheaper the insurance. That's in this country. In Ireland, births had to be registered as soon as possible otherwise there was a fine. That's OK for those who live in the town. My father who was born in Mayo, had two birth dates. His actual birth date was in Nov 1902 but his civil was Feb 1903. That's when my grandmother was able to get into town. They were living in a rural area. Nora In a message dated 3/27/2014 3:25:49 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) writes: But it is interesting that they almost always erred on the side of making themselves younger than they really were.? Virginia