Date of death on gravestone appears to be wrong - is this usual?

[eadaoin]

The gravestone on my avatar has two errors of date
- one I can understand, as I'm pretty sure it was engraved 30 years later after another death
- I've no idea how the other occurred.

And another family grave in that cemetery is also wrong!

eadaoin

[LizzieW]

Seems to have been a recurrent problem. 

[Ruskie]

Lizzie, is this a transcription of the Headstone, or have you seen the actual stone? A transcription could be incorrect. The numbers 5 and 8 especially when carved in stone, can look very similar.

[suey]

Lizzie, is this a transcription of the Headstone, or have you seen the actual stone? A transcription could be incorrect. The numbers 5 and 8 especially when carved in stone, can look very similar.

Those were my thoughts, especially if the inscriptions are worn.   

[JenB]

A transcription could be incorrect.

I recently checked a memorial stone for a fellow Rootschatter.

The published transcription of  the stone gave the person's age as 74. When I checked the stone it was quite clear that the age was actually 71 

[LizzieW]

I haven't seen the stone but I have a photograph that a kind Rootschatter sent to me and the date is very clearly shown as 1808, see photograph.

[Ruskie]

Yes it is 58 - in that case it must be the stonemason's error? Perhaps the 5 and 8 weren't written clearly and he got it wrong. 

[LizzieW]

Yes it is 58 - in that case it must be the stonemason's error? Perhaps the 5 and 8 weren't written clearly and he got it wrong.

It's the year of her death he got wrong, not her age.  That is correct for her death in 1805.  So he must have carved the stone 3 years after her death, unless he didn't know what the year was.

[Ruskie]

Yes it is 58 - in that case it must be the stonemason's error? Perhaps the 5 and 8 weren't written clearly and he got it wrong.

It's the year of her death he got wrong, not her age.  That is correct for her death in 1805.  So he must have carved the stone 3 years after her death, unless he didn't know what the year was.

Yes, of course the 5 and the 8 in the year of death .... 
I suppose the stone could have been carved some time after her death. Still likely to have been the stonemason's error or misreading of the dates given to him. Someone sure got it wrong.