Genealogy: How to Solve a Date Problem?

Inconsistent birth dates? Follow our tips to solve these puzzles in your genealogical research.

If humans make mistakes, it remains a puzzle when it comes to distinguishing truth from fiction in the lives of our ancestors.

So we wondered what tricks we could use to try to « discover the truth » (note the quotes!). In addition to considering the calendar of the time - and possible discrepancies between age and dates - here are 6 elements to check:

1. Check and re-read the records carefully

The first thing to do when two dates don't match: find, re-read, and re-verify the records in question. One can assume that the record closest to the event (birth or baptism record in case of confusion about the birth date, for example) is also the one least likely to contain an error.

2. Check who reported the event, who the witnesses are, and who drafted the record

These three elements are important to consider in your verification. Indeed, the person who reported the event and the witnesses may sometimes be neighbors or slightly more distant members of our ancestor's daily life. It is not uncommon to find approximations about age or birth date at the time of death (even when the death is reported by a close relative). Therefore, consider this age at death as an approximate age that allows you to define a time range for searching for birth or baptism records in archives.

Finally, it is also not uncommon to find oneself, in the BMS registers, facing a curate who is not very talkative or has poor spelling, which could lead to an approximation, or even a date error.

3. Check other archive sources

Cross-referencing sources is one of our golden rules in genealogy. By discovering other archive sources such as the censuses, the military draft records for men, and even the notarial archives, you could sort out the truth from the false in all your dates. Don't hesitate to consult our article 9 Archive Sources to Use for Your Genealogy for inspiration.

4. Check if it's not a namesake

It is not uncommon to encounter namesakes, sometimes even in the same village. It is therefore essential to ensure that this inconsistency in dates is not due to a crossover of information between two people with the same name and first name.

To verify if you are going down the wrong path, you will need to find evidence in the archives - the marriage record often seems to be a reliable resource because you can find the names of the parents there.

5. Check if a significant local or national event could have disrupted the recording of records

Local events such as fires, destruction, and wars can explain why it is difficult to find records - and therefore evidence - to clarify dates. The Revolution is also a major event that greatly affected the record-keeping system. We actually transitioned from parish registers (BMS) to civil records (birth, marriage, and death) at that time. Such events and « disruptions » can therefore also explain different dates at different points in life.

6. Check if your ancestor had a good reason to lie about their age

This 6th tip is much easier to read than to do! Indeed, what our ancestors lived through is entirely theirs, and we can never determine the truth of information from archives.

However, it is possible that your ancestor lied about their age, even for an official statement (it was actually easier to lie before the Revolution and the standardization of statements). Your ancestor may have lied about their age to start military service earlier, to avoid gossip at the time of marriage, or even to receive a pension, for example… In short, you just need to try these 6 tips to clear all this up…

Happy researching!