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Question:I am doing genealogy. I noticed that sometimes death certificates, gravestones, and census data rarely match up completely. When they decide to put the dates of death and birth on the stones, where does the information come from, and where can I get it too?

Note: I have a death certificate for my great great grandfather, for instance, and his death certificate says a whole year different than what's on his stone for when he died*. is this a blooper that I should maybe try to fix someday, or do they have special archives I should try and chase down?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I am doing genealogy. I noticed that sometimes death certificates, gravestones, and census data rarely match up completely. When they decide to put the dates of death and birth on the stones, where does the information come from, and where can I get it too?

Note: I have a death certificate for my great great grandfather, for instance, and his death certificate says a whole year different than what's on his stone for when he died*. is this a blooper that I should maybe try to fix someday, or do they have special archives I should try and chase down?

Gravestones are only as correct as the person supplying the information for them. My husband's grandfather hasa tombstone that has his birth year off by 2 years and my great grandfather's tombstone also has his birth year off by a year. Anyone can order a tombstone and the information on a tombstone doesn't have to be verified.

Sometimes tombstones are ordered many years after someone passed. My grandparents lost a baby in 1945, but a tombstone wasn't set until 1962, when my parents lost their baby and had her buried in the other half of the grave. By ordering a tombstone many years later, it leaves room for errors. When in doubt, I would always rely on the vital records before anything else. That is because the record is usually made at the time of the event. (i.e. Birth, Marriage, Death)
When vital statistics can't be found, I take what I can get like everyone else:-)

Whoever ordered the gravestone would have supplied the information.

He time travelled, idk i think they get the info from hospital records and family members

people usually give the info to the funeral director, and they give it to the people who make the stone..chances are w/ you grandfather they didn't have the money to buy a stone until a year later, and the people put the wrong year on there

There family (the person who died)'s immediate family probably supplied them with the information back then.

I would say it would be a registry which has that information. Maybe your grandfathers is a typo, but who knows the volume of traffic that goes through there, the patience or even carefulness of the person who works there could be a factor. Most gravestones will have info. on them given from the familys, but if there are no familys it would more than likely be a registry. They register birth and death certificates so all of that info. would be on file.

The funeral director files all the paper work. All that information is on the death certificate. You can fix "bloopers" too....they happen all the time.

Depends on when and where the death certificate was written. It could have been a clerical error made from some paperwork and the family never had a need to change it. Seems more likely than the stone being incorrect, unless it was made without the family (by military or social agency) who might have made the same mistake.

I am not sure where this info is but I will tell you what happened with my great aunt. She passed away 12-02-2000.

Her husband had the engraver put the date on and it was engraved as 12-20-2000 He never fixed it because it would cost too much. Sad really My family has offered to do it but since he is still alive we can not do anything.... It is sometime mishaps like this that can happen

Usually, information on a tombstone comes from the family of the deceased, who probably purchased it. On census forms, your age is determined by when your birthday occurs (for instance, if a person was 21 in March 2000, but the census was taken in January 2000, his age would be put down as 20 instead of 21.). As for Death Certificates, they often give a bounty of information: birth and death dates, birth and death places, parents'’ names, parents'’ birthplaces, spouse's name, whether or not the spouse is alive, Social Security Number, veteran status, occupation, cause of death, burial place, and informant's name. But, sometimes they are delayed--meaning the place where the person died didn't get it sent to the proper government office right away. So, the one filling out the certificate would more likely than not put the date he/she was filling out the form rather than the correct , ACTUAL death date. Don't take one source as being the one --forgive the pun--written in stone.
Birth certificates include date of birth, how many children born [single, twins, etc.], name of parents, marital status of mother, occupation of parents, age of parents, address of parents, name of doctor or midwife, total number of children mother has delivered, and number of her living children. In earlier times, rural families often did not have birth certificates, but instead put children's names, birth dates, etc. in the family's Bible (some King James Version Bibles have a special area for this purpose with several pages between the Old and New Testaments) and usually wrote them in pen and ink--which over time can fade, making them hard to read.
In my own experience, I had to have my birth certificate to enroll in college back in the 1970's. When I got it, I noticed something strange--my birth year looked like it said 1848 instead of 1948--so I had to get a new one before I could finish applying for school.