William Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863 - Date of birth for William Marshall

Начал Jim Henderson вчера
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вчера в 10:58 после полудня

I have added some sources for William Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863. These suggested only minor changes to the profile, so I went ahead and made them.

But a confusion has arisen concerning dates of birth for him and for his children. I calculated their dates of birth from their ages given in the immigration document for his family arriving in Sydney, Australia aboard the "Persia" on 1863-05-10. That document says William came from Rothes, Aberdeenshire, and that his children were natives of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire. So then I searched at ScotlandsPeople and found birth records for them with slightly different dates. Here are the details:

[[Alexander Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863 Alexander Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863] William Marshall Snr]:
Immigration date: 1836 (ie. 1863-05-10 - 27)
ScotlandsPeople: 1834-12-30 birth record for William Snr

[[William Marshall, Jr William Marshall, Jr] William Marshall Jr]:
Immigration date: 1859 (ie. 1863-05-10 - 4)
ScotlandsPeople: 1858-10-24 birth record for William Jr

[[Alexander Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863 Alexander Marshall, Free Settler “Persia” 1863] Alexander Marshall]
Immigration date: 1861 (ie. 1863-05-10 - 2)
ScotlandsPeople: 1860-01-08 birth record for Alexander

[[John Marshall John Marshall] John Marshall]
Immigration date: 1862 (ie. 1863-05-10 - 1)
ScotlandsPeople: 1861-11-23 birth record for John

I'm a bit confused about these differences, and I'm wondering if any of you have experience with calculating ages in Scotland in earlier centuries.

The online age calculator is an easy way to find someone's age on a particular date from the date of birth, and for these people gives these results:

William Marshall Snr: 28 years 4 months 11 days, not the 27 in the immigration record,
William Marshall Jr: 4 years 6 months 17 days, which matches the age in the immigration record
Alexander Marshall: 3 years 4 months 2 days, not the 2 in the immigration record
John Marshall: 1 years 5 months 17 days, which matches the age in the immigration record.

The notes at the online age calculator say that ages are calculated differently in different cultures, and I'm wondering if any of you have experience with methods used in Scotland.

Thanks for thinking about these things.

вчера в 11:14 после полудня
Сегодня в 4:35 до полудня

Things to consider when looking at early Australian immigration records

  • some schemes had cut off ages (lower and higher) - so some travellers might put their ages up or down to be eligible
  • some older children might not have been eligible on their own merit so there age was lowered to be eligible to travel as children
  • we don’t know exactly when the record was created - was it when they applied or when they left or when they arrived.
  • we don’t know who provided the information - the father, the mother, an agent
  • multiple copies of the records were made - so some records may have been transcribed incorrectly
  • there may have been a language / accent difference between the writer of the record and the traveller
  • the level of literacy of the traveller
  • the knowledge of the traveller
  • rounding - some numbers were rounded up or down - someone who was 39 might be written as 40
  • people sometimes lied and sometimes what they thought was the truth really wasn’t.

In my research I have one gentleman who was a very successful businessman and travelled every year on holidays - he always had the same family with him and provided his home address and the names of who he was travelling to so I know the records are all him. I have in excess of 30 travel documents for him and his age and date of births changed constantly.

Сегодня в 4:55 до полудня

Another factor

  • cost - different ages might attract a different fee
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