Genealogy Chat

My grandparents had their father's Christian names reversed on their marriage cert. Could have caused me an awful lot of searching if I had not already got their birth certs. David

My gr grandfather gave his age as 21 when he was actually 23. His wife was 24. His sister seemed to reduce her age. says she was 29 when marrying a 26 year old, but she was 36. David

Hi Kate, Thanks for your reply. I did find his birth certificate in 1881 - the date on his death certificate was correct. Charlotte

Charlotte - have you actually found a record of his birth in 1881, or could it just be that his age on the death cert was wrong? Kate.

Thanks to you all who replied (and v. quickly!) On the marriage certificate, his wife's age was stated as 18 - which means that she was born in 1882 - which is correct. Thanks again for your help. Charlotte

I found the newspaper obituary of a gg-gfather online yesterday. It said he was 69 when he was actually nearly 74; I would imagine he was probably registered as being 69 too.

SNAP X 4

It was more subtle than claiming to be just 21 when he was only 19. Presumably his parents weren't there to dispute his age? At 21+ he didn't need parental consent to marry. Christine

You had to be over 21 to get married without parents permission. So they simply lied about their age. You didn't have to produce any documents to prove how old you were Linda

Quite simple really, He did not want to admit he was under 21 at the time to avoid having to obtain his parents permission. Was his wife older or younger than him? Many men did not want to admit they were younger than their wives, which could be another reason. My wifes g grandparents ages change by a couple of years over the years as you work through the censuses.

Hi All, Bit of a newbie on this site - but have been researching my tree for a number of years now! This is more of a general question, but not sure whether it's unique or if anyone else has come across this while researching their family tree. My great grandfather married his wife on 3rd June 1900. His age was stated as being 22 years old. So off I go to try and find his birth certificate in the year 1878/1877 - Couldn't find it - searched through numerous other years around that time and still couldn't find. I eventually found his wife's death certificate in 1954, which stated that she was a widow - so I trawl back and eventually find his death certificate in 1945, which had his age as 64 - hence he was born in 1881!!! So does anyone know - or point me to somewhere that can help - why he aged himself by 3 years on his marriage certificate? Sorry for the long post. Thanks Charlotte