Wee white lie?.....

[emanday]

My Crilly rellies seem to have originated in Ireland. Margaret Jane was born in Mullaglass, Co Armagh in 1873. Still haven't found her parents marriage - James Watson to Mary Jane Crilly.

Also can't find them on 1871 or 1881 census, so don't know if they came over to Scotland with their daughter.

I have also discovered that the name isn't actually all that unusual on IGI, and can be found in Scotland, England and Ireland over quite a spread of years.

[JimM]

I don't suppose our ancestors celebrated their birthdays as we do & if they had no documentation with date of birth on it then it must have been hard to keep track off!!

I wonder if this is a misconception?..
For example - when someone applied for poor relief, the inspector would have to establish where and when any children were born (if the children were born in another parish the board would then make a claim on that parish).

I have many examples of applications of very poor and ill educated families who knew exactly when and where they were born.
The application would often state "as per lines seen"...... proving that people would have documentary proof of birth to hand.

Jim

[DavidWW]

Hi Jim

You're spot on in terms of the many poor relief records that I've seen where the place and date of births have obviously been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Inspector by various means including the production of "lines".

In general, my experience is (Warning!!: - implied advert follows) that it would appear to be the case that most people had a good idea of the day and month of their birthday, but occasionally got the year wrong, - understandable if the pre-1855 baptismal certificate hadn't survived ...............

In case anyone is wondering, such certificates were most often supplied by the church, as were certificates relating to the proclamations of banns, - I'm fortunate enough in my own tree to have a certificate of the proclamation of banns for a couple in Edinburgh in 1746.

Sadly, it's quite rare for such documents to have survived to the present day.

David

Personal statement, as advised by a legal mate: Please note that this post is made purely on the basis of answering the question asked, and in no way should be taken as representing that I have any particular expertise in the area, nor, in particular, that I seek any personal advantage from this post, now or in the future.

All and any liabilities are denied should it turn out to be the case that that the answer is wrong (anyone can make a mistake , - Oops, my legally qualified mate doesn't like that bit )

David W Webster, B.Sc., C.Eng., F.I.Chem.E., M.C.I.W.E.M., FSA Scot

[Rachel]

and some not so wee. I had a copy of my ggfathers death certificate and his age was shown as 41 years. The death was registered by his son who never seemed to know his age either. Fortunately there was also a register of corrections which I obtained and it showed ggf's age as 74. This particular family line has caused me lots of headaches relating to their ages and yet they all appeared to be able to read and write as most of their documents were signed with names and not 'x'. At the same time I had to smile as my parents were always coy about stating what their age's were,my mother always said she was '16' plus.
rachel