Genealogy Chat

Can you tell me please the age you see on a headstone would that be the true age? Sue...........

it would be as true as the person that gave the info i suppose. the dead person cannot, of course tell the info i guess a child age would be more accurate as probably told by parent, but anyone else , depends who was doing the telling of the age, so no, dont rely on it

It's the age the person who arranged the headstone believed the person to be!!!! The worst one I have come across was almost 15 years adrift!!! But it's common place for the age to be a year out. Don't forget, the stone might have been erected years after the person died. Hubby is going to have a small stone put on his g-grandmother's grave soon (if he doesn't keep spending the money on beer??!!) and she died in 1947! However, we have her death and birth cert and will not make a mistake - but others would not be so careful! One thing to know is that in Victorian times and before many people would describe themselves like this: Lets say the person was aged 25. They would say they were ''in the twenty-sixth year of their age''. So you can see that the age on their gravestone might easily end up a year older than we would understand them to be. Merry

Thanks Jess and Merry for you answers. Sue................