Here are a couple more examples. My gt gt grandfather William Fenning, from 1845 and throughout his life, gave his year of birth as 1829 when I know he was definitely baptised in 1828. Similarly, the man who was later to become his son-in-law, Henry Stafford Goodfellow, was born in 1843 but stated his year of birth as 1844. This would have enabled them, on joining the merchant navy in 1845 and 1860 respectively, to claim to be 16. I read somewhere that once you were 17 you were too old to be apprenticed as a seaman. Maybe someone can confirm that this was the case and so could be the likely explanation? Hew Stevenson Jobs for the Boys: the Story of a Family in Britain's Imperial Heyday by Hew Stevenson (ISBN 978-1-902563-02-2). £15 + £5 p&p. _www.dovebooks.co.uk_ (http://www.dovebooks.co.uk/)