As new researchers, we often scratch our heads over wildly differing ages given on census returns etc. The more experienced researcher knows that people didn't attach much importance to their ages and I now have absolute proof of that!
A contact has just sent me a copy of a family letter, written in July 1863. Timothy Holden is writing to his son Jonathan, who has emigrated to New Zealand, and writes:
"You ask me to tell you how old you are. You were born on 20th December 1823, so you are now rising 40".
This is a literate family (the letter proves it, and Timothy was then in his 70s) yet it has only now occurred to Jonathan to wonder how old he is. Proof to my mind that it was of little interest to people in those days, and quite often genuinely unknown!
OC
A contact has just sent me a copy of a family letter, written in July 1863. Timothy Holden is writing to his son Jonathan, who has emigrated to New Zealand, and writes:
"You ask me to tell you how old you are. You were born on 20th December 1823, so you are now rising 40".
This is a literate family (the letter proves it, and Timothy was then in his 70s) yet it has only now occurred to Jonathan to wonder how old he is. Proof to my mind that it was of little interest to people in those days, and quite often genuinely unknown!
OC
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