ESSEX-UK-L Archives

Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2002-08 > 1029972601


From: "norman.lee1" <>
Subject: Re: TWICE in the 1881 census?
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 00:30:01 +0100
References: <000b01c248f8$b73d91b0$92c07ad5@IanH> <002801c24938$e6f1d5c0$bee4fc3e@oemcomputer> <001601c2493c$dcbc7980$5f7a66cf@showlett>


The main one I rely on is the death certificate. Someone else reported that
death more or less immediately it occurred. However, the age of the deceased
is often wrong. When asked how old was your mother, my great, great uncle
must have replied 'Oh about 70' and that's what is on the certificate. She
was in fact 74 if you take her age into account on the various censuses. Of
course, she too could lie when necessary as I discovered when she gave
Barnardo's an exaggerated one to show that she really was too old to cope
with a young baby and three other children after their mother had died. But,
if you take an average of her replies, it was 74 on death.

Audrey

----- Original Message -----
From: "Stella Howlett" <>
To: "norman.lee1" <>; <>
Sent: Wednesday, August 21, 2002 7:02 PM
Subject: Re: TWICE in the 1881 census?


> Audrey wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
> > My great aunt who went to Canada always thought she was two years
> younger
> > than she really was and this was no affectation. She always quoted
> her age
> > as younger even when it was not in her interests. Consequently,
> her
> > granddaughters looked at the wrong set of photos of Barnardo's
> shipping
> > arrivals for her. She was fifteen on arrival, not thirteen as she
> had told
> > them. They must have had her birth certificate and worked it out
> from oral
> > information. But she had no need of her birth certificate. She
> never had a
> > driving licence, a bank account, a passport, or anything else that
> required
> > such a document. On her marriage certificate, she is down as two
> years
> > younger too.
> >
> > Is this off-topic?
>
> Thread-drift, perhaps? < g >
>
> Very good point, Audrey, and a good reminder to those of us who
> sometimes get carried away and assume that dates and ages on
> documents such as marriage & death certs, census returns, etc. must
> be correct--when in fact they are very often wrong.
>
> Regards,
>
> Stella Howlett
> BC, Canada
>
>
>
>
>
>

This thread: