How old was he ?

[greyingrey]

I think I may have a late baptism....the baptism was in 1800, the death in 1862. The age entries on the census records tie up with the birth being around 1800(they check out as 1800/1802)....I don't suppose there's any way I can find out if 1800 was really the year he was born ?


Another query.....would it be likely for a person to have the names of his parents/children/siblings on his gravestone in the nineteenth century (I know ...you're going to tell me "sometimes") & would it have been usual for an agricultural labourer to have had a gravestone ?

Thanks

[margaretmarch]

Have you seen the original baptism record? If so and it has no date of birth then you have no real chance of finding the date.

I have some that gave the number of days old as a last column in the register so I was able to work it out.

I would have thought the names on a headstone would generally only reflect who was buried there except where it might say 'beloved husband of Nellie and /or devoted father of Fred'.

Ag labs were not well off so the chances of having a headstone are small unless there was a stone already there from a previous burial (when they were better off) that had been added to.

But - with all things genealogical you can never tell unless you look
Margaret

[Anne in Carlisle]

To answer your last point, I would say it would be 'less usual' for an ag lab to have a headstone but the end it would depend on the wishes and finances of his family. Just because there is a headstone doesn't necessarily mean it was erected immediately after his death, for example. Also the family may have saved into some kind of funeral/death insurance.

Not sure what you mean by a 'late baptism' if it looks as if he was born in 1800 and baptised then? I have transcribed a great many parish records and (on the occasions the age was given) the ages at baptism spread from the same day as birth (!) to adulthood. In my findings it seems the age is more often given if the child is more than a month or two old but there are no rules! Of course if the age isn't given your stumped!

Anne

[Little Nell]

Less usual to have a headstone, although my ag lab gt gt grandfather has a lovely headstone. They didn't have enough money to add his wife's name when she died some years later and its worn much better than the one put up years after their deaths of my gt grandparents.

As for baptisms - I have a few examples of late ones, when the child was around 4 or 5 (which I've taken to be because they were about to start school) and their ages are given.