Wow, what a horrible death that would be. I thought I remembered accurately a story I heard when I was maybe 10 about one of my ancestors being thrown off a boat coming across the ocean, into the waters to be fed to the sharks. Turns out it was actually just that one of my ancestors died coming over on the boat and they had to put his body in the waters. The sharks come into play because apparently us as children asked if there were sharks in the water. Yep, I even confuse myself sometimes. Michael Wright 801-773-7680 (H) 801-390-0960 (C) > Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2012 17:00:11 +1000 > From: dmlfamilyhistory@gmail.com > To: staffordshire@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] Finding Descendants > > Michael > 1) There was no reason to remember ages in those days. Only when pensions > started was there a need to know how old one was for legal reasons, and in > the early days of civil registration many children were not registered even > though it was in fact a requirement to do so. Even Baptisms can not always > be trusted to give an accurate year of birth as many children were baptised > later in life. My g grandfather was baptised when he was 8 years old, and > his brother was baptised the same day when he was 6. Luckily the Vicar > entered their birth date on the baptism entry. > > 2) Many people were illiterate and the census enumerator asked questions, > wrote down the answers and then filled in the forms when he returned home > that night, so mistakes were frequently made. The people would not have > known what he was writing down if they could not read or write. > > 3) Beware of 'word of mouth' stories too! My own father always told me > that I was born > 'overlooking Wimbledon Common'. I found out when I eventually needed a > birth certificate and looked up the given address of my birth that the only > thing it overlooked was the Wimbledon Railway Station! > I have a letter written by a gr Aunt in which she related the story about > the tragic death of my ggg grandmother, but almost every fact was proved > wrong when I purchased the death certificate, including the fact that she > said it happened when my ggg grandmother was waiting for her husband to > come home from work on New Year's Eve, and she was all dressed up in a > crinoline for their family celebration. The event (she and her baby of 7 > mths were burnt to death when her dress and the baby's crib caught alight > following a log falling from the fire) happened in early December! > On 2 March 2012 16:36, Michael Wright <rahmuss@hotmail.com> wrote: >