Calculate Birth Dates from Tombstones and Census Records! (2024)

[@gregorylittle1461]

Thanks

[@GenealogyTV]

Hey @gregorylittle1461 thanks so much for the Super Thanks. I do appreciate it.

[@merlinunderwood849]

Thank you Connie. I learned something new today. I was going by the date of the visit on the censu. That for pointing that out. Keep up the great work.

[@GenealogyTV]

You are so welcome

[@glendastaples9536]

Thank you for this information. I've never thought about the census records that way. Much appreciated.

[@janetcarlson4923]

One oriblem is thar sometimes the census taker couldn't find anyone home and talked to a neighbor. I have seen huge discrepancies between dates on one census to another census. Like a child being 10 years old in one census and 15 in the next census when they should gave been 20.

[@Margaret-emuu]

Great video! Thanks 🤩

[@yvonnefochesato4652]

You are the bomb-diggity. Great job!

[@debbiecarroll5672]

Good morning Connie..thank you!

[@erinfecik2612]

Another very helpful video. Again Connie thank you!

[@GenealogyTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sherimc4869]

THANK YOU! 🌳🍎

[@jennichristie5264]

Hey there. Just to note that the notation reads age at last birthday prior to 1st June 1880 in case that affects your calculations in future (by a day). Thx for the simplifying of working out ages from headstones where age in years, months and days listed. My head hasn’t really thought it out like that!!

[@GenealogyTV]

You are correct.

[@opalsman9217]

Do you like the new matches of matches pro tool. !!!

[@GenealogyTV]

Just starting to play with it.

[@markstambaugh3273]

How about leap years? Wasn't the calendar adjusted during the 1800s?

[@GenealogyTV]

That is a good question and I'm not sure of the answer off hand.

[@KarenL8426]

Family Tree Maker also has a date calculator. Tools>Date Calculator

[@GenealogyTV]

Good to know.

[@bradleymartin4823]

I assume the date programs add in Feb. 29th as needed from death back to birth. Doing that math in my head or paper is goofy for me sometimes... thanks Connie. Counting the days until 100,000...

[@GenealogyTV]

Hi Bradley, Yes I believe they do take leap years into account. I'm counting the days too. 100k subscribers should be sometime in mid July.

[@karenandrews8695]

I have an ancestor on a 1900 census who specifically put they were 43 yrs old, b in 1857 and her birthday listed as Nov and immigration 1869. *nothing was correct and I am still trying to find out when she entered the country. So far 1869 is not it 😢

[@cindycarrasco2383]

Connie awesome video and definitely food for thought, but i do have question on the 1880 Census and it deals with my 3rd Great Grandmother. She died in 1875 of which she was about 63 years old when she passed. So at the top of the 1880 Census Record there is a note b that talks about death of people and recording them on the Census Record. Does this mean if she is dead and during the half way mark of when Census Records are taken every ten years, would she be recorded on the 1880 Census Record even though she passed away 5 years earlier 🤔 ? I just want to make sure that i am comprehending this correctly. Just do not want to assume anything. Thanks again for this video...awesome tips

[@GenealogyTV]

Hi Cindy. Thanks for the compliments. There are mortality schedules for years 1850-1900, however, it was only for those people who died within that previous 365 days from the official census date. So if a person died in say Sept. 1879 and the official census date for the 1880 census was June 1st, 1880, then they should be listed in the mortality schedule that was published in 1880. So in your case there would not be a census notation of their death. Look to other records for evidence of death, Find A Grave, Billion Graves, Church Records, etc.

[@cindycarrasco2383]

Thank you greatly appreciated for that quick turn around on the question. I am suspecting that my 3rd Great Grandfather married again and the woman first name is Lucy too as was my 3rd Great Grandmother name was too

[@frankhooper7871]

Then there's the person (more than one in my tree) who ages by 8 or 9 years in each consecutive 10 year census LOL. I tend to trust the earliest census the most - especially if they are a child on that census, but never a guarantee.

[@QueenOfTheMay]

The woman in family always fudged their age later in life, so I tend to pay attention to earlier birthdates when I find them 😅

[@GenealogyTV]

Agreed.

[@Jaxon_Flett_Genealogy]

Hello, I am 98 years old and I was wondering if you could guide me on how to share a family tree on Ancestry or have it printed for others. Since I may pass away in a few years, I want to share it with my great-grandchildren. The family tree has been transferred to Ancestry from paper. It is 500 years old and includes 236,000 individuals.

[@GenealogyTV]

Hi Jake. The easiest way is to share your username and password with a family member now or in your estate papers. Ancestry now offers family groups with is another option. If you do nothing else make sure your tree is public so others can learn from your work. If you have done a DNA test (I hope so) you will need to make someone an administrator of that kit separately.

[@Jaxon_Flett_Genealogy]

@@GenealogyTV Hello Connie Can you show me how to do that?

[@lizzybartlee]

There has to be a way to do this in Excel!

[@sr2291]

Some obituaries will give that detailed death information, too.

[@talentonboard2456]

I didn’t know the fraction meant the month born. I thought 3/12 meant they were 3 months old at time of census.

[@gopherlyn]

To calculate approximate birth dates, I have created an Open Office workbook (Excel has some issues when using dates), which I called before-After event, which will calculate birth dates if they were born before or after the event. I list the age on all documents on one sheet for a person. I have made a template, so when I want to want to add a person, I copy the template with all of my calculations. For example: This is John Rennick in Scotland: Year if born Event Age Event Date Year before Event after Event Birth Place Occupation 1st Marriage 22 Jan 30 1857 1835 1834 Coal Miner 1861 Census 25 Apr 07 1861 1836 1835 Ireland Coal Miner 1871 Census 35 Apr 02 1871 1836 1835 Ireland Coal Miner 2nd Marriage 45 Apr 18 1879 1834 1833 Coal Miner 1881 Census 46 Apr 03 1881 1835 1834 Ireland Coal Miner 1891 Census 56 Apr 05 1891 1835 1834 Ireland Coal Miner (unemployed) Death 60 Apr 29 1894 1834 1833 Coal Miner From this I deduced that he was born After April 5, 1834 and before April 18, 1834, it helped that all of the events took place in April. I have found baptism records for his siblings, but not for him, but this birth date fits nicely between siblings that I have baptisms for. The spreadsheet does the calculations for me.

[@GenealogyTV]

Excellent use of Correlation of Evidence. Nicely done.

[@MuchMoreMatt]

How would you explain a birth year being 1792-1795 on the censuses to 1787 on the headstone? Headstone does not actually say 1787, but says he was 98 years at time of passing in 1885. Could this be an engraving error and were those common?

[@GenealogyTV]

Could you have the wrong tombstone? Could that be a three year old child who lived from 1792-1795?

[@MuchMoreMatt]

@@GenealogyTV Philip, the person in question, died in 1885. That date comes from his probate record and the headstone. He may have been born as early as 1792, or as late as 1795. Those dates come from censuses. His headstone states he was 98 years old, which places his birth year at 1787, 5-8 years eariler than expected. My only explanation is that someone misread Philip's age at time of death, and that information was passed along to the engraver. If Philip was 89 or 90 instead of 98, his birth year would be 1795 or 1796.

[@frankhooper7871]

Always bear in mind that the age given on a gravestone is the age the person who commissioned the stone believed their relative to be - not always correct.

[@woodturner1954]

Only seems reasonable an AI chat site would give false or incomplete answers if using the free version. Even AI sites know about the value of the buck.

[@christycarpio647]

😂😂😂

[@kevinkendall2182]

20th-century physicians who calculated age-at-death for death certificates did not have ChatGPT. 18th-century stone masons carving gravestones did not have computers. They instead generally calculated the age-at-death with the simplifying assumption that each month had 30 days. Therefore, to reverse this calculation today, one should use the same assumption.

[@karenandrews8695]

All the time 😢

[@michaelokeefe9579]

Clarification that ChatGPT-4o is actually a step above ChatGPT-4. They are two different versions of ChatGPT. You used ChatGPT-4o in the video but referred to it as ChatGPT-4.

[@GenealogyTV]

Thanks for the clarification.