What problem does FamilySearch Add Birth Ranges to Census Records solve?
FamilySearch Add Birth Ranges to Census Records adds a line to FamilySearch census records that gives the dates the person was born between, worked out from their age and the day the census was taken. FamilySearch’s Birth Year (Estimated) is the census year minus the age, which is often a year out, because most censuses were taken in spring.
How does FamilySearch Add Birth Ranges to Census Records work?
Under Birth Year (Estimated) on a census record, a line starting with Born abt gives the first and last months the person could have been born. For a man aged 39 in the 1881 census of England and Wales, taken on 3 April 1881, it gives April 1841 to April 1842, where FamilySearch shows 1842.
Most censuses asked for each person’s age at their last birthday. The range follows the rule of the census you are looking at, so these give different ranges:
- The 1851 census of Canada East and Canada West, and the 1861 census of Ontario and Quebec, asked for the age at the next birthday.
- The 1841 census of England and Wales rounded adults’ ages down to 5 years, so an age of 30 means 30 to 34.
- The 1890 United States census asked for the age at the nearest birthday.
- A baby recorded in months, such as 3 months, gets a range of one month.
Click the ? beside the range for the exact first and last dates, here 4 April 1841 and 3 April 1842, and how they were worked out: the age, the census day and how that census counted ages, with a link to the official source. The range assumes the age on the record is right, and families and enumerators did sometimes get ages wrong.
There is nothing to set up. The range comes from what the record already shows, so it appears with the page, and it changes with the record when you click another person in the household.
How do I use FamilySearch Add Birth Ranges to Census Records?
- In the Genealogy Assistant pop-up panel, make sure Add Birth Ranges to Census Records is turned on.
- Open a census record on FamilySearch, from a search or a person’s sources.
- Under Birth Year (Estimated), read the months the person was born between.
- To see the exact dates and how they were worked out, click the ? beside the range. Press Esc or click elsewhere to close it.
Why don’t I see the birth range?
- If the record gives the full birth date, as the 1901 census of Canada does, there is no range: the record’s own date is better.
- The United States censuses from 1790 to 1840 count each household’s people by age group and give no one’s own age, so there is nothing to work from.
- A census whose day and age rule are not yet confirmed from an official source shows nothing, and so does FamilySearch when it is set to a language other than English. Census Days and Age Rules lists every census that is covered.
Related features
- FamilySearch: Download Record as CSV File: Download everyone on a FamilySearch record, such as a census household, to a CSV file, or copy them as a table to paste into a spreadsheet or document.
- FamilySearch: Add Advanced Search to Profiles: Search FamilySearch people and records on the civil registration index for their places, WikiTree, Find a Grave and Newspapers.com, filled in for you.
- Add Birth Ranges to Census Records: Shows the dates a person was born between on Ancestry census records, from their age and the census day, and flags a census that cannot be theirs.
FamilySearch Add Birth Ranges to Census Records is a feature of the software Genealogy Assistant.
Genealogy Assistant is an extension for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari which supercharges your family history research by adding over 100 custom features to popular genealogy websites like Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, FamilyTreeDNA and more.
Install Genealogy Assistant for Google Chrome | Install for Mozilla Firefox | Install for Microsoft Edge | Install for Apple Safari