When I see so-and-so died in his/her Nth year, I understand his/her actual age to be N-1. I've been working my way through some of the graveyard transcriptions of Columbia County and am non-plussed when they don't match up with what I already know because it's such a regular thing. I don't know the absolute reason, but in many cases in may be a bad reading of the gravestone that causes the date of death, minus the given age, to not match up with the known birthdate. It may be innumeracy. It may be that the person supplying the info for the marker wasn't knowledgeable. In some cases I can surmise what went wrong and add a note to my citation. In other cases, if it was real importnat to my work, I would want to get another citation from another source, say a funeral record or obit. Jim -----Original Message----- From: nycolumb-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:nycolumb-bounces@rootsweb.com]On Behalf Of Cliff Lamere Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:01 PM To: nyalbany@rootsweb.com; nyrensse@rootsweb.com; nycolumb@rootsweb.com Subject: [NYCOLUMB] Age on a gravestone If a gravestone says that a person died in the 30th year of his age, how old was the person? Since a person's first year is before they reach one year old, then during a person's 30th year they should only be age 29. I am wondering how this has been applied in the past when stones were carved. Today I saw a stone on the internet that said that the person died "IN HIS 87. YEAR". I know for a fact that he was 87 when he died. If a stone said that a person was 50 years old, that is not being questioned in this email. If it says, "in his 50th year" or "in the 50th year of her age", then I don't know the intended meaning. Does anyone know of cases in which the person's real age was one less than the number shown on the stone? Cliff Lamere ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYCOLUMB-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Jim, Just so I am sure, what was "such a regular thing?" Are they regularly N-1, regularly N, or do they just regularly not match up with what you already have (for various reasons)? Cliff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ James Brady wrote: >When I see so-and-so died in his/her Nth year, I understand his/her actual >age to be N-1. > >I've been working my way through some of the graveyard transcriptions of >Columbia County and am non-plussed when they don't match up with what I >already know because it's such a regular thing. > >I don't know the absolute reason, but in many cases in may be a bad reading >of the gravestone that causes the date of death, minus the given age, to not >match up with the known birthdate. It may be innumeracy. It may be that the >person supplying the info for the marker wasn't knowledgeable. In some cases >I can surmise what went wrong and add a note to my citation. In other cases, >if it was real importnat to my work, I would want to get another citation >from another source, say a funeral record or obit. > >Jim > > >