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Hi Everyone,

Could there ever be an error with the date of birth year on a birth certificate?

I have the 1901, 1911 and 1939, marriage and death record all showing a birth in 1894, but clearly the year of birth on the birth certificate show 1895?

Your thoughts?

The birth cert is more likely to be correct, assuming you have the birth cert for the right person.

We do have the right birth certificate. Do you think they just forgot the year of birth? She turned out to be deaf and dumb

When a certificate is purchased from PRO, is the text within the box an exact copy of the original registrar?

Do you have the actual birth cert?

Yes (Well a scan of the certificate supplied by GRO)

What is the date of registration?
Is that 1895 too?

1895

24 Jan 1895 Dorothy May d/o Frank Saunders & Louisa Emma Saunders formerly Bath

1901 recorded as 7 y/o
1911 recorded as 17 y/o
23 Apr 1916 marriage recorded as 22
1939 register birth given as 24 Jan 1894
1990 death birth given as 1894

my mother was born in 1918 but reg. is 1st quarter 1919

If it's the right birth cert, it is most likely that the family forgot the correct year of birth.

My father-in-law always celebrated his birthday on a certain date, and his wife and children all believed that to be his birthday.
It was only when he died that they discovered that he was actually born a fortnight earlier.

Derek ........

on all censuses people were asked their AGE on the DATE OF THE CENSUS, while the transcribers of the censuses and other records had to translate the age in years to year of birth.

This is the easy answer to your question, partly because Dorothy was born so early in the year ................. child shown as 7 on a census taken in March or April translates to year of birth = 1894.


That explains the discrepancy on the censuses, but not her mistake (if it was) on other records.

However, maybe it's something about 1894 and 1895 :-D

My grandfather was born on Jan 9 1885, in Lancashire. He told all the family he was born on Dec 25th (no year mentioned), although on enlistment in WW1 in December 1915 he gave his age as 30 years and 350 days ...... which translates to Dec 25 1894.

Even the 1939 Register says 25 December 1884, as well as his death certificate.

I think he originally really did believe that he was born that 2 weeks early (maybe his parents lied to him so they didn't have to buy 2 lots of presents), but he must have discovered otherwise after he served in WW1, because he served in India and what is now modern-day Iraq and apparently had to get his birth certificate for travel documents (his birth certificate was discovered hidden in a drawer when my uncle was clearing the house after his death).


To complicate matters even more, he added an extra year to his age on his marriage certificate in November 1902, claiming he was 19 (his wife claimed she was 20 instead of 19!), thus allegedly born in 1883!




One suggestion for you ................ people sometimes added or deleted years from their actual age if marrying someone who was either much older or younger than themselves. This was intended to make the gap in ages appear much less. Was there a difference in age between her and her husband????


Today, we call them toy boys or trophy wives :-D :-D :-D

To be frank, I would ignore everything but the birth cert

It’s not possible for a birth certificate to be incorrect as births are reg within 6 weeks of the birth

A registrar would know what the year was !

Can you post the 1901 census? I'm not seeing her with those parents, or a marriage or birth for a Louisa Emma Bath.

Rose

Dorothy’s birth is registered in JFM qtr 1895. As I said above, ignore every other record

Dorothy's brother's baptism

Name: Frank Carlton Saunders
Gender: Male
Record Type: Baptism
Baptism Date: 11 Dec 1892
Baptism Place: West Kilburn St Luke, Westminster, England
Father: Frank Saunders
Mother: Louisa Saunders
Register Type: Parish Registers

1901

Name: Frank C Saunders
Age: 10
Estimated birth year: abt 1891
Gender: Male
Birth Place: London, England
Civil Parish: Chesterton
Ecclesiastical parish: Chesterton St Luke
Town: Chesterton
County/Island: Cambridgeshire
Country: England
Registration district: Chesterton
Sub-registration district: Fulbourn
ED, institution, or vessel: 4
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece: 1524
Folio: 86
Page Number: 9
Household schedule number: 74
Household Members:
Name Age
Frank C Saunders 10

He also 'gained' a year - a family trait, it seems

I don't see Dorothy or her parents in 1901 either, nor their marriage.


Frank junior is at the Harvey Goodwin Home for Waifs and Strays in 1901.
So I suppose Dorothy isn't with her parents either.

In 1911 she's at St Faith's Home, 35 Cedars Rd, Clapham (the address on the marriage banns).
The image says "This is a home for deaf and dumb girls. . . . The matron states that she has filled in all the particulars she can obtain."

So that explains the DOB discrepancy, if Dorothy was also in a home in 1901, which seems likely though I haven't found her yet and the person in charge didn't have the correct details.

Dorothy would go through life believing what she had been told (by the matron) about her DOB, and nobody would know any different.

Erika and Shirley ....................


you forget that people sometimes did give the wrong birth date to the Registrar

........... if they were registering later than the 6 weeks and they didn't want to pay the fine!

In that case, the usual birth date would be at least a couple of months earlier than the certificate says.

The baptism often proves that "lie" .............. especially if it happens several months earlier :-D



AG ............. it seems your father-in-law went the opposite way to my grandfather who celebrated 2 weeks earlier than he was born. Although mine also often said he was also born a year earlier :-D

No, I didn't 'forget' that people lie, but.....................

in Dorothy's case the discrepancy is exactly one year - not a few weeks

1901?

First name(s) Dorothy
Last name Saunders
Relationship -
Marital status Single
Sex Female
Age 7
Birth year 1894
Birth town London
Birth place England
Birth place other as transcribed -
Birth county Middlesex
Birth county as transcribed LONDON
Occupation Patient
House name Isolation Hospital
House number -
Street -
Town Ealing
Parish Ealing