Misleading Information

Do you trust everything you read on a death certificate? I hope not. I can't say how many times I've come across a death certificate that the informant has given his/her parents' names and not the names of the decedent.

Take this death certificate for Addie (Adaline) Keas Mansur. It gives her birth date as October 26, 1841 and her death date as October 26, 1941. Wouldn't that make her exactly 100 years old? EXCEPT her age is given as 83 years 11 months and 7 days.  Her husband John Mansur was born in 1850.  By my figuring, she was born November 19, 1857. The 1900 census says July of 1857. It sure isn't 1841!

Copyright 2011, ACK for Gene Notes