Birth Cert from Death Cert?

[ellistown]

HI ,
I have the death certificate, and marriage certificate for my great grandfather. I also have a birth cert for one of his children. What I am trying to find is a birth cert for him and wondered if there is any correlation made between these documents as his birth year varies between 1867to 1875 based on census, and death records.

[aghadowey]

Perhaps if you post some details you've already found we might be able to help.

Name? birthplace? census records? etc.

[danuslave]

Hi ellistownuser

To answer your question - no, there is no correlation between the documents you already have.  Each event will have been registered in the district where it occurred, without any cross-referencing to the other events.

But.. we love to help   

Linda

[Jebber]

There is also the possibility that if he was born before 1875 his birth may not have been registered.

It was only from 1875 that the onus was on the parents to go and register the birth, prior to that it was the Registrar's responsibility to  go and get the information, it was not uncommon for births to be missed.

Jebber

[wivenhoe]

If you are considering what weight to give conflicting birth years, as indicated by these several sources, these ideas might be useful to you -


Marriage certificate -
He is the author of his information recorded on his marriage certificate.
Until you know otherwise, I would read this as the most accurate indication of age.
How old was he when he married?
If he was much older than his wife, then he might take a few years off, the better to reduce the difference.

Birth certificate -
Who is the informant on the certificate you are seeing?
Is he giving an age for himself, or is it another person giving him an age on the baby's birth certificate?

Is it the birth of the first child?
Sometimes vanity can cause a person to be creative with their age, and that self-serving error can slowly increase with time.

Death certificate.
The death certificate would have information provided by someone other than your greatgrandfather, even if he might ultimately be the source of the information.
How old was he when he died?
If he was ...75yrs...then it would be common for an age at death to be out by even +/- 5 years.
If he was 45yrs...then a genuine error might just be one or two years.

[Scrabble]

Have you find him in the 1881 census? I always go by the age on the first census I find my ancestor on as I feel it is less easy to make a mistake with the age of a very young child than with an older person.

[Nick29]

The accuracy of the DOB or age on a death certificate really depends on who the informant was.

If it was a close relative, the chances are that it will be accurate, as will a DOB or age taken from a 'modern' (post 1930's) hospital record.

In some cases the informant may have been a neighbour or distant relative, who may have only taken an educated guess at the person's age at death.

[pinefamily]

Of all the documents you mention, the death certificate is likely to prove the ;least accurate, for all the reasons given above.
Unless your great grandfather has a fairly common surname, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a birth certificate.

Darren