Birth Date Calculator
This calculator is a
useful tool for genealogists. It is designed to calculate the birth date when
the age at death and the date of death are the only facts known. As we all
know this is often the only information recorded on older headstones.
Note regarding Birth Date Calculator:
While doing some testing on this with 30+ death certificates
already containing a birth date, death date, and age, I have found it to
be only 39% accurate. It was 1-3 days off 38.5% of the time and more
than 3 days the remaining 22.5%. No one really knows
exactly how stonecutter's figured the age of the person. Did they
use a formula, count off the days between birth and death, did they figure
in Labor Day? Varying methods could have been used. A friend has
a different method of calculating a birth date and running the same
test, found it to be only 22.5% accurate! These methods work
ok for approximate birth dates, but it should be understood that these
date's are most likely not correct. In running a several
step process from when the stonecutter first figures the age
from the birth date and carves the date on the stone and then someone
tries to do just the opposite, there is lots of room to make errors
along the way.