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

Thanks

Great video! Thanks 🤩

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Some obituaries will give that detailed death information, too.

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.

I use ChatGPT 4o A LOT for genealogy work (as well as so many other things). A really helpful tip is to have it decipher old documents, transcribe and/or translate them for you. I found it remarkable at figuring out doctor scribbles for causes of death on death certificates as well as names on many other documents. Even if you are just focused on a small bit of text to understand, upload the entire document to ChatGPT so it can use all the character styles in the document to determine what your mystery text is. It detects the style of handwriting and makes determinations as to what was being written in your mystery text. VERY helpful.

Another very helpful video. Again Connie thank you!

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

Great video! Thank you 🤗.... Ive recently started using chatgpt myself. Its really cool being able to ask a question and not have to sift through so many pages. I got a guy that does it for me 😆. Although, i know i need to always double check the work. Its nice getting answers to obscure questions like, 'which newspaper did a small town at the bottom border of Indiana, called elizabeth, use in the 1860's?' Its been a blessing 💚

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.

THANK YOU! 🌳🍎

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.

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!!

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.

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 😢

All the time 😢

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?

Good morning Connie..thank you!

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