How accurate is age on death certificate?

[Beeonthebay]

Even in recent times, not everyone is clear about their relatives' dates of birth.

I was saying to a relative the other day - "had he still been alive it would have been your Dad's 99th birthday tomorrow", and he replied "how do you know what year he was born in, because I don't".

That's because he doesn't think like we do. 

I know.     But I have to say, even before starting all this family history malarkey, I knew the years of my Mum and Dad's births.

And that's why we do what we do. 

[ohbodder]

My 4xgt grandmother died in 1889 supposedly age 57, but according to the the censuses between 1851 and 1881 she was 32, 30, 46 and 50.  At least the 50 matches up with her death age, but it means she was 11 when married in 1843.  Marriage certificate say 'of full age'!.

[IgorStrav]

I suppose you could sum up very shortly the answer to the OP question

"how accurate is age on death certificate?"

It's

"not necessarily very accurate at all"

 

[Andrew Tarr]

Strangely, I have one lady in my family who lies about her age when she married and on every census (perhaps because her husband is several years her junior), yet on her death certificate her age is spot on. Either she stopped pretending to be younger, or someone found her birth certificate. ..

Once she was dead, she could hardly keep lying, could she? 

But in essence, until about WW1 or even WW2, there was no easy way to dispute a person's age without reference to birth certificate or baptism register.  The recorders were unlikely to argue about the age they were given, unless perhaps it was blatantly wrong?

[Geoff-E]

My mother-in-law was surprised to receive an enquiry from "official channels" about her maiden aunt's upcoming 100th birthday. The old lass had only admitted to being 90!

[Geoff-E]

An ancestor's age was given (by his 46 year old son) as 62 when he was probably 74.

His widow's age was given as 69 (when the eldest son was 60) when she was really aged about 81.

[JAKnighton]

I work with someone who just found out the birth year on his mother's grave is a year out. Ages are misreported even today.