[…] There are many reasons why information might not agree on all the documents you have in your family tree and one of them is that people sometimes lie. Your ancestors might have bent the truth on a document for many reasons. Our female ancestors sometimes became mysteriously younger from one census to the next. Marriage documents might state that both the bride and groom were of the age of consent when in reality, one of them was underage. Your ancestor might have given the wrong birth date on a birth certificate to avoid paying a fine for late registration. For a great roundup of reasons why our ancestors might have been ‘economical with the truth’ on various documents, listen to the National Archives UK Podcast by Audrey Collins called ‘Sex, Lies and Civil Registration.’ […]
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