David/Chris/Anthony,
My thank's for your collective comments on the subject of dates of birth as found on
GRO death data from circa 1970 onwards.
Had already anticipated that some of those "missing from the year quoted" would
be found in the year either side of it and indeed this was the case in quite a few
instances as one would expect but not all by any means.
The point re illegitimacy and name swaps had not occurred to me.
Recognise that the submission of a date of birth by a 3rd party without production of a
birth certificate is a potential source of error and needs to be kept in mind.
I think I am going to go along with Chris' suggestion here ; in that where no GRO
birth entry can be found, despite a wide search for one, that I am going to include the
claimed day/month/year of birth for that person with suitable annotation re source, ie ex
death info; on the grounds that it is better to be seen to duplicate a persons birth than
to ignore it.
Maybe the lack of any birth info should be taken as a warning signal and the researcher be
on guard re events such as illig't or born abroad etc.
Tim