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Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 28 Sep 2014 9:06PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: O'Brien
I am nearly positive I have uncovered the correct baptismal record of my great grandfather, William O'Brien, in Ireland - with a name like that it's like looking for a needle in a hay stack. The year is listed as 1874 and that date is used again on his Chicago death certificate. However, most US censuses, the passenger list, his naturalization papers, and marriage certificate all list 1877.

Is there something in the immigration rules that would have made a single Irish male change his age from 19 to 16?

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 11 Oct 2014 4:09PM GMT
Classification: Query
A lot of people are listed as younger than they really were on ship passage records because it saved them money on the fare. I don't know why that would have carried over to the marriage and other non-immigration records. So it is possible that the age change occurred before his move to the US. There could have been a local reason for it, like keeping him from being taken for work or military duties (I simply don't know Irish history so others can fill in the reality there).

Another possibility is that you have the wrong William O'Brien's birth records. If the parents match exactly, he could have been named after an older brother who died young. If the parents don't match (or you just don't know), then it's probably not him.

People generally are not 100% consistent with birth years in this time period so the fact that your GGfa's records are 100% consistent (aside from some Censuses) except for the birth record tells me that either that's not him or there was an early change that stuck.

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 13 Dec 2014 10:57PM GMT
Classification: Query
I've done alot of research of passage records and have followed many immigrants through the censuses throughout the rest of their lives in America. Many European countries did not have the same customs as we've had here in America, especially when it came to celebrating or even keeping a record of when their birthday was. For many, the only paper trail record that existed was a church record, for those that did attend a church or had their children baptized in one, or maybe a family Bible. A birth record was not needed (in Europe) for anything; to join the military, travel abroad, to immigrate or anything else so there was no incentive to keep one. I'm sure without a paper record, the older one got the harder it became to remember their age or birth date. If your great grandfather did not know for sure, he would have guessed.
Also, the poorer a person was, the fewer possessions they had (which of course is still true today). His family may not have had a family Bible or even any paper to write on to keep track of anything, let alone birthdays.

Depending on where you found this baptismal record, you're right, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack with a name like 'William O;Brien'.
Are you positive that the naturalization papers truly belong to YOUR great grandfather? If so, those papers should have his place of birth. Even if his couldn't remember his date of birth correctly, he would certainly know WHERE he was born. If you have a village, town or city name, you can then make a list of churches in that location. In that era there was often only one church, depending on how large the city was.
Some churches may still exist, If so, you could write to them directly and ask where their old records are kept. If not, I would check to see if there is a Genealogical Society in that county that might have old church records or digitized versions available. If your great grandfather was a member of a particular denomination of a church in America, it's highly likely that was his same affiliation in his homeland.

As far as US census records go, in my opinion, you can put very little weight on what you find for a variety of reasons. Usually parents and adult children were at work or out in the fields during the day when the census taker would have visited the house to ask the questions. In most cases it might have been a child that answered the questions and if so, there would have been alot of guessing done to answer the questions. There is also the language issue if the immigrants had a strong accent or did not speak english. I have never seen two consecutive censuses in a row that had the correct information for the same person. There is always something screwed up. Since that is often the case, I recommend taking census record information with a grain of salt, and merely as a starting point.

Also, do not confuse a baptismal record with a BIRTH record. Sometimes children were baptized at a certain age, sometimes just when it was convenient or sometimes when parents were baptizing all their children together.

The information on a death certificate is supplied by an informant (person who informed the authorities of his death), which was usually a family member, who would only know his birth date if he had told them while he was living. Which again, if your great grandfather did not know for sure, then the informant would not know for sure.

As someone else mentioned, passage fares were reduced for children (they took up less space) traveling with their parents or relatives. If he looked younger, its highly likely that he jumped at the chance to save some money.

Good luck in your research.

Becki

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 17 Dec 2014 5:22PM GMT
Classification: Query
Becki

While this may be true in what you have seen. I can say this it not the case from what I have seen in those people coming to the US from Croatia in the late 1800s into the post WW I period.

The church was the official record keeper of baptism/birth records and in all cases I have seen the birth date and the baptismal date listed. This would be for most of the immigrants from Croatia who were either Roman Catholic, Orthodox (Serbian), Evangelical (Lutheran), Hungarian Reformed and Byzantine Rite Catholics. These churches performed infant baptism, with the baptism taking place either the day of birth or within a day or so. Baptism was NOT done at the convenience of the parents in these cases.

Conscription began at age 21 and was verified via the church record.

Also for immigration, again, the church record would be consulted to ensure age. This was done to ensure that males had served their 2 years of mandatory service

I have seen the "permission to emigrate" paperwork in archives in Croatia and the baptism/birth record was used for this purpose.

Robert Jerin
Croatian Heritage Museum
Cleveland Ohio

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 25 Jun 2015 3:33AM GMT
Classification: Query
I myself have noticed in census records that ages are usually only approximations. It's possible the census takers only guestimated the years of birth by asking each household member (or at least the head of household) the age of everyone listed there. The most accurate is almost always going to be death records, marriage records, military histories, and burial records.

I have seen my father listed as approx. 1926 at least once on federal census records when he was born in April of 1925. Often times, census takers may have started collecting data in January of each decade, but when people have birthdays after January, then of course the ages are not going to be too accurate. If there's more than one year difference, I can only guess that either census takers wrote down the wrong thing they thought or that maybe they didn't believe what was told them.

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 25 Jun 2015 4:30AM GMT
Classification: Query
In English censuses, it is the AGE that is shown on the census images ..... and specifically the age at midnight on the day that the census was taken.

It is the modern day transcriber who has had to translate the age in to a birth year, and that can only be an estimate as the year can vary by at least one year, depending on when the census was taken vs someone's birthday.

Is this not the same on US censuses?

Re: Why would someone make themself younger upon arrival

Posted: 25 Jun 2015 4:42AM GMT
Classification: Query
I think so.
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