This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Roper, Masters Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/kgDBAEB/52.64.1 Message Board Post: I am informed by a correspondent with access to Cemetery incriptions in Forsyth County, GA, that William and Susan Masters ROPER are interred at Friendship Baptist Church: Roper, William (born in Pickens Co, S.C.) age 87 years [no birth date] 7 Feb 1892 Roper, Susan; Age 79 years [died] 7 Mar 1879 * * * * * Please note that William ROPER's given age of 87 implies a year of birth of about 1805 rather than the implicit year of 1808 taken from the age given in the 1850 Census. Susan Masters ROPER would seem to have been born about 1800 if the information on the burial marker is trustworthy, making her again somewhat older than is shown in the 1850 Census enumeration. Of course, this PRESUMES that the ages given on the cemetery burial markers are reliable. * For comparison, William amd Susan ROPER are shown to both be age 41 in the 1850 Census [at 12 Aug 1850]; age 51 in the 1860 Census enumeration [at 2 Jun 1860]; aged 61 and 62, respectively, at the date of the 1870 Census [at 12 Aug 1870]; and William ROPER is age 72 in the 1880 Census enumeration [at 18 Jun 1880]. These are rather remarkably consistent Census records. The consistency is suggestive to me that the information given in the Census is more likely to be correct. In 1880, William ROPER is shown to have been born in Georgia to parents both born in Georgia. That year, he is residing with Larkin ROPER, age 30. By contrast, in each previous Census, both William and Susan Masters ROPER are shown to have been born in South Carolina. So in this final Census enumeration, William ROPER had aged an additional year and his birthplace was forgotten. Based upon all of the available evidence, I am most inclined to believe that this William ROPER was probably born about 1809 and that the cemetery marker was likely to be INCORRECT as to this WIlliam ROPER's age. That William and Susan Masters ROPER are both shown to be illiterate and that Larkin can neither read or write CANNOT possibly help in terms of recordkeeping or remembering! By contrast, I am inclined to believe that the date of death and place of interment shown is RELIABLE.