From: myths@ic24.net   
      
   On Wed, 11 Nov 2020 20:36:35 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"   
    wrote:   
      
   >He's a friend's ancestor.   
   >   
   >We have marriage certificate 2016-10-11 in Gateshead register office,   
   >between Joseph McDonald 28 and Mary Flanigan (yes, spelt like that) 22.   
   >(Yes, I know ages are often wrong on MCs, though I can't think of a   
   >reason he/they should _deliberately_ lie about either. She was already   
   >pregnant.)  [...]   
      
   I know of a 20C marriage where the bride lied about her age (wanted to   
   appear under 25) to the man courting her  and was only discovered to   
   have done so when a birth certificate was needed in her old age and   
   the registrar, having searched for the date she had given, came back   
   to her and her accompaning daughter to check he had noted the date   
   correctly - apparently the woman, well over 80, went bright red and   
   said "Try two years earlier".   
      
   A more extreme case was a great-great-grandmother of mine - listed as   
   aged 11 in the 1841 census (highly likely given the date of marriage   
   of her parents and the ages of her older and younger siblings), 18 in   
   the 1851 census, and 18 when she married in 1856 (6 or 7 months   
   pregnant).  After the marriage, she aged at the normal rate, but did   
   not regain the lost years.   
      
   It's also possible for information to be misheard / mistranscribed/   
   misunderstood and not noticed in time (or much cared about).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)