Narrowing birth dates -- a free tool does the math for you — GENOHISTORY.COM

Narrowing birth dates — a free tool does the math for you

A census record offers you a moment in time when your ancestor was, say, five years old. That gives you a potential birth date range of 365 days, plus a possible Leap Day. If you use multiple records, however, you can use the overlaps to whittle down that range, getting closer to the real date. Doing this math in your head, unfortunately, can launch a headache. But I have a solution: the Date Narrowing Calculator. My gift to you.


The 365-day census birth date range

If we’re doing things the fast and easy way, we look at the year on a  federal census, subtract the age of our ancestor, and assume the difference is the likely birth year. Put “ca” in front of it, and you’ve covered for your imprecision. Fifty-fifty, you have the right birth year.

But we’re genohistorians. That’s not good enough. We are narrowing dates to get to real  numbers, if they can be had.

OBLIGATORY NOTE . . .
We all realize, of course, that the numbers are only as good as those providing and recording them. So, precision is an ideal we're drilling toward.

First, you need to know what date was being used to calculate the age — something called the “Census Day.” (For a great explanation, see The Census Day by William Dollarhide, written for the GenealogyBlog.) Regardless of what date the census taker arrived at your ancestor’s house, the age was being calculated based on the federally mandated Census Day, which changed from decade to decade. Here are the dates William Dollarhide reports:

Census YearCensus Day
17902 Aug
18004 Aug
18106 Aug
18207 Aug
18301 Jun
18401 Jun
18501 Jun
18601 Jun
18701 Jun
18801 Jun
18901 Jun
19001 Jun
191015 Apr
19201 Jan
19301 Apr
19401 Apr

Let’s say your ancestor Beatrice Mitchell shows up in the 1910 census as age three. Since it’s 1910, you know your census-taker — let’s call him Bob — was reporting Beatrice’s age as of April 15, 1910. Here are your outlying scenarios:

Earliest possible birth date:  April 16, 1906

Narrowing Dates using Beatrice Mitchell Birthday

If Census Day fell the day before Beatrice’s fourth birthday, Bob would record Beatrice as three years old. She was born one day shy of four years before — April 16, 1906.

Latest possible birth date: April 15, 1907

Let’s say Beatrice celebrated her third birthday on Census Day — perhaps inviting her gal pals in for a themed birthday party.  In this case, Beatrice’s birth date was exactly three years earlier — April 15, 1907 — and could not be later.


Narrowing dates using multiple records

Thanks to a census record, we have narrowed Beatrice’s birthdate to one of 365 days between April 16, 1906, and April 15, 1907 — more helpful than the normal “ca 1907.” That’s progress, but not where we want to be. While in our best-case scenario, we seek a quality record with her full birth date on it, we don’t always get that lucky.

Let’s add other similar records, those containing a date of the record and her age, and we can begin to squeeze that range. Narrowing dates with multiple documents can bring you within a few months or even days of the event.

Beatrice’s other records: further narrowing dates

In 1915, let’s say, a school report card dated May 30, 1915, indicates that Beatrice was 8 years old, which gives us a new birthdate range: May 31, 1906 – May 30, 1907. If you look for how that range intersects with our earlier dates, you see that the narrowing date range is now 319 days — an improvement :

May 31, 1906 – April 15, 1907 (narrower)

At age 13, Beatrice appears in the 1920 Federal Census, which had a Census Day of January 1, 1920. We now have a new range to take into the mix: January 2, 1906 – January 1, 1907. Intersecting that with the narrower dates above reduces the date range to just 215 days:

May 31, 1906 – January 1, 1907 (even narrower)

Finally, you find a marriage license record for Beatrice, dated August 4, 1931. She’s listed as 25 years old, adding a new date range of August 4, 1905 – August 3, 1906. We’re down to a 65-day window for Beatrice’s birth:

May 31, 1906 – August 3, 1906 (really narrow)

This new window tightens our research, allowing us to make a much better call about the other facts that surround Beatrice and her family.


A tool that makes this easy

In trying to do this sort of analysis on my own family history, I kept tripping over myself. Too much to remember. Too much to compare. Who’s going to remember the calculations?

That’s what spreadsheets are for, and I created one to take the pain out of this procedure. In my Date Narrowing Calculator, you enter each record, its date, and the age of your ancestor. You can use this for other types of event dates, as well — marriages, employment, anything that specifies years served or lived or married as of a particular date.

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

At the bottom of the Earliest Date and Latest Date columns on the right, the spreadsheet alters your range as you add records, so that you can see the narrowing dates. If one of the records you add does not fit with the ranges you already have, you’ll see a message in red to flag you. You’ll need to determine which records seem most credible.

If the record only has a month and year, you can choose a date within the month. Speculative, admittedly, but at least it brings you close to your needed range. You can also enter a fragment for infants — 1/12 for a one-month-old — and you will have a very tight range. (Note that this calculation can be off by a few days.)

If you are recording a federal census record, enter the census year in the appropriate column, and the calculator will look up the Census Day for that year. (It’s worth downloading the tool just for that.) Enter it in the date field, and let the calculator give you your range.

Download it free

Download this spreadsheet free from this Dropbox:

Narrowing Dates Calculator


*Disclaimer
I can't promise this tool will work on every system, with every combination of software. I offer it "as is," with a confidence that it will help most of you. If it is not working, I would like to hear about it, in hopes that I can improve it. But there are no guarantees. You load it on your (presumably virus-protected) system at your own risk. 
Share...
Share

11 thoughts on “Narrowing birth dates — a free tool does the math for you”

  1. I have subscribed to your blog just this week so am surprised I feel the need to comment so soon. I am under the impression that people were asked to give their ages as of the census day for that census year. I believe I have read that people who were alive on census day but died before the enumerator visited were to be included in the census while babies not yet born on census day were not included even if in the mother’s arms at doorway. My point is that in this example, shouldn’t you use the census days for 1910 and 1920 instead of the day of the enumerator’s visit?

    1. I haven’t heard that, Susan, but I will definitely try to get confirmation. If you’re right, I’ll revise the post and calculator. If anyone else can help confirm, please pipe in. Thanks!

      1. Hi, Susan. I just found this very helpful discussion by William Dollarhide: The Census Day. You are absolutely right, and I need to revise my calculator. It’s going to be more complicated than I thought, since the census day is different each year. I’ve pulled the post, which might prevent you from seeing my reply. (I’ll email you separately.) But I’ll get it back up there as soon as possible. Thanks so much for the correction!

  2. I’ve already subscribed to your mailing list in order to receive the pre-1850 census tool. How can I also download this one as well?

    1. Hi, Meredith. You should be getting an email from me with the link. Let me know if you don’t. Thanks so much for joining the email list!

  3. Patricia M Carlson

    I just found your blog (via a link from http://beyondkin.gegbound.com), just subcribed, and am reading your archived blogs. Is it possible to still receive the “narrowing birth dates” tool. Thank you for the great information and tools.
    Pat
    (a fellow “intermediate genealogist” trying to become “expert” through continuing education).

    1. Absolutely, Patricia. Just sign up for the Golden Egg Genealogist mailing list (different that the Beyond Kin one), and you’ll receive a link to this and another tool you’ll find very useful. If you have any trouble getting it or using it, email me at donnacoxbaker@gegbound.com.

      Hope you like it!
      Donna

  4. This is a wonderful tool. Thank you for providing it. I work a lot with the 1841 Scottish Census, which is a challenge because of the following: Anyone over the age of 15 was supposed to be rounded down to the nearest 5 years. So, as an example: If the age is recorded as 15, that person could actually be 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19. (They came to their census –pun intended– by 1851 and quit rounding down.)

    There were a lot of inconsistent applications by census takers in 1841. As a general rule, I am wary of any age ending in a 0 or a 5 on the 1841 Scottish Census because it may be a rounded-down number.

    This is what I do to make your spreadsheet work with the 1841 Scottish Census:

    1. If the age ends in a 0 or a 5, I have to consider that the person may actually be up to 4 years older than the recorded age.
    2. In the spreadsheet, I double-click on the YEAR cell under “Earliest Date”.
    3. I modify the formula for that cell by entering -4 after the final parenthesis of the original formula, which subtracts 4 years, thus making the “earliest date” a possible 4 years earlier.
    4. I change the color of the cell (I chose yellow) to remind/alert myself that I’ve modified the formula in that cell.

    This little census-specific tweak has worked very well for me, so I wanted to pass along the tip.

    Thank you again for this fantastic tool!

    1. Wonderful, Amie! I’m so glad you’re finding a use for it and have made it work for your needs. Thanks!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shopping Cart
Share
Share

I stand with the innocents of all nations and pray peace to all.

X
Scroll to Top