I'm working on genealogy & need to know when an ancestor was born based upon

Question:died on March 4, 1920 and at the time of his death he was 65 yrs, 8 mos & 26 days. When was he born?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: died on March 4, 1920 and at the time of his death he was 65 yrs, 8 mos & 26 days. When was he born?

Wednesday, June 7, 1854.

wow, i cant believe you cant figure this out, just subtract.

Ah, but in genealogy, Dominguez is NOT totally correct.
For genealogy, it is always critical to find more than one document, when possible. The date of death is almost absolutely correct, since the document was issued within a few days of the death. As to the BIRTH, it is very likely that the person giving the information was not present at the birth, and their calculation is based on their known information.
One sample of finding (proving) a death cert to be wrong.. the death record claims the person to be born in 1852. When you find the family in the census records, say 1850... the person is CLEARLY listed as being age 3, and also 13 in 1860. It is impossible that the child, age 3, could have been born 2 yrs later than the census was known to be taken.
Obviously, the death certificate is LIKELY to be accurate, but not guaranteed. If ALL you ever can find is one record about a person, you don't have much options. But, after years of research, and seeing TONS of conflicting records...it's a very good idea to be aware of how errors can happen, and how to evaluate them. We all know today of ladies who don't like admitting their real age.
by the way.. also realize that after being here in yahoo answers for a while.. you WILL see many persons who see no problem in racking up 30-20 points a day, by telling persons "why don't you google it?" or "gee, I don't know". Mild form of cheating.. don't let it get to you.

Wendy is absolutely right about locating a couple of sources if possible to verify the real age. For the LONGEST time, I thought that my great grandfathers date of birth was October 5, 1869. That was the date that appeared on his death certificate and the date that appeared on his tombstone. I got a real suprise when I located his birth certificate in the Netherlands and found that he was actually born October 5, 1868!! Trying to locate a document written around the time of the event is always preferable, but sometimes (many times, actually) you have to run with what you have. Another source that can be more reliable than a death certificate (which relies on an informant giving the information) is any document that the person actually filled out themselves such as a draft card or a marriage application.

Here is a link that you might want to book mark. It is a handy dandy birthdate calculator so that you can plug in your months, days, and years and arrive at a birthdate. Take care and good luck with your further research.

http://www.searchforancestors.com/utilit...

Note that you put his age in days months years, not the other way around. To answer your question, He would have been born June 7, 1854