Ascertaining reliable date of birth

[Gordon163]

From his daughter (only child), who was the informant.

G

[heywood]

Thank you for your reply.
You say you have already checked our suggestions but nevertheless here are mine:

His marriage certificate with his fathers name and occupation
1921 census with said parents
1939 register

[coombs]

He must have been registered. Born 1915 or 1917. Unless he was born under a different name, or was adopted or a foundling. Legal adoptions did not start until 1926 I think but there was always foundling.

[heywood]

Sorry, I must have missed that.
Has a birth registration never been found in his known name?
What are the earliest records you have in his name (as known at death).

[Jebber]

Presumably his daughter must know who his parents, her grandparents were.  Regardless of  whether he was born in 1915 or 1917, he should appear with his parents in the  1921 census. Hopefully they would have given his correct age, so the correct birth year could be calculated from that.

[Gordon163]

I was born in similar circumstances after WW2. I got my adoption papers in 1977 - which showed my father to be "Jack Robinson, Army Driver, Age about 30" - total ficticious nonsense.

I discovered my father's identity in 2018 by matching my DNA with his grandson - then obtaining father's army records, which confirmed that he was in the right place at the right time!

The daughter in this investigation is a DNA match of mine.

She knows her paternal grandfather's identity, but not that of her paternal grandmother. Her father did not know the identity of his mother, as he was brought up by a variety of people, who were distant relatives, at best, being before 1926, as mentioned.

Using our shared DNA matches, I think that I have worked out the identity of her paternal grandmother, who registered the birth of a son, which would agree with the later birth date (i.e. not what is on the Army attestation). There is some agreement in the names, but not total agreement. Obviously, I cannot be 100% certain.

The daughter does not accept this, but relies on some purely circumstantial evidence, which was among her father's papers. Her choice of paternal grandmother only works for the earlier date of birth, for which there are no BMD records to support it.

Thanks for your comments and I hope this makes it a little clearer.

Gordon

[Gan Yam]

This is essentially a question about the working of officialdom.

Clearly, this man had been drawing a state pension, which began when he was 65, at the best date that the DWP could determine.

As his death certificate indicates, that date was 2 years later than the Army Attestation date.

Obviously, some senior civil servant made a decision.

Unless someone has any further useful comments, relating to Civil Service procedure, I will not trouble you further.

Gordon

Having spent a several of my early working years employed by the then Dept of Employment, I would have thought that his pension date would have been decided by the information attached to his National Insurance number as most pensions and benefits were.  That information would have existed for a long time prior to his 65th birthday, and would have been used by his employer/s. By the time he reached that birthday the system was computerised. Even in the mid 70's the offices were using the computer systems.

Although I don't know, I would suspect that if the information that they held was wrong, it could be contested by providing all the relevant prove they required. NI numbers are now attached to a child shortly after birth when a child benefit claim is made, but of course, this wouldn't have applied to the man you are researching.

(Added: just to clarify if a man born in 1915/17 claimed benefits when I worked in benefits in the mid 70s to 80s we would have received his NI record via a computer printout and as far as I can remember this also included a dob)

[mlrfn448]

His birth could have been registered under a different name
(I recently found a birth reg like this, which I have assumed to be the correct birth based on the first and middle names, names of mother and especially the father's occupation, which is consistent with a baptism 8 years later and marriage at which was given a made up father's name, but the occupation was the same)
This could apply if the mother was single etc.
Or he could have been born somewhere else; a different country.