I recently thought of a funny story my Great Uncle James used to tell about my grandmother, one of his older sisters. It seems Grandma used to take liberties with her age, so much so that the siblings were required to adjust their own ages to fit in with her new math. It was at her funeral that Uncle James quipped about finally knowing how old he was.

That snippet of a memory sent me back into the records to see if there was any truth to Dorothy’s alleged fudging of birthdays.

It is helpful to know a few things about the census. First, it helps to know the location and names of others in the family to verify you have the correct person. Second, all ages are as of the official Census Day. This varied from year to year, but has been April 1 since 1930. Finally, I found this handy calculator to help translate the age listed on the census relative to the census day.

My grandmother was actually born in October 1903. 

• 1950 - Age 43 [actually 46]

  • Calculated birthdate range would be 2 Apr 1906-1 Apr 1907

• 1940 - Age 34 [actually 36]

  • Calculated birthdate range would be 2 Apr 1905-1906

• 1930 - living in Brazil, no census

• 1920 - Age 15 [actually 16]

  • Calculated birthdate range would be 2 Jan 1904-31 Dec 1905

• 1910 - Age 6 [correct age]

  • Calculated birthdate range would be 16 Apr 1903-14 Apr 1904

It does seem as if Dorothy may have increasingly altered her birthdate. However, we do not definitively know who supplied any census information. It wasn’t until the 1940 census that enumerators placed a circled X next to the name of the informant.

As with all genealogy research, your quest does not end with an answer, it can only end with further research questions.

RQ: What records exist where Dorothy self-reported her birthdate?

What records would you search next? Let me know in the comments below.