From the Rowan Co NC mailing list. This may help some others who have
struggled with this computation.
Don't ask me questions as I haven't quite tried it yet, but it sounds
logical.
Betty Pace
--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Myrna Madigan <fbc(a)net66.com>
To: ROWANROOTS-L(a)rootsweb.com
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:16:25 -0500
Subject: Re: [RowanRoots] Birth date calculation
At 01:23 PM 9/26/2002 -0500, Wallace Smith wrote:
I've been meaning to ask this for some time. Is there a formula or
some
other way to calculate an ancestor's birth date, if the gravestone gives
the date of death and the age at death? For example: Died Sept.6,
1844.
Aged 59 yrs, 10 mos, 13 dys.Thanks for any help.
Wallace in New Orleans
Try it this way:
1844 09 06
- 59 10 13
after borrowed months and days, you have:
1843 20 37
- 59 10 13
=1784 10 24
You can plainly see that you will have to "borrow" and "carry"
if you remember 3rd grade arithmetic. If you borrow a month,
you will have to add 28-31 days to your days and that can be
a tough one to figure. I usually use the number of days in the
month prior to the death month. In this case, August, 31 days.
If you borrow a year, add 12 months to your months.
If you are lucky, your genealogy software has a "date calculator".
Look under your menu item for "tools", "calculator", "date
calculator".
Mine indicates this person was born 24 Oct 1784. So I guess my
calculation above is OK. Can't believe I got that right.....
Myrna Madigan
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