[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Lying about age on shp's passenger list

[Jerry Frank]

Have you tried matching up your people to the outgoing passenger 
lists from Bremen or Hamburg?  They might be more (or conceivable, I 
suppose, less) accurate.


Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca




At 07:04 PM 30/11/2006, Carolyn Schott wrote:
>You know - this is actually one of the things that bothers me about my
>specific entry!  My g-grandmother would have been 16 at the time, but it
>appears that her age is listed as being 9.  It seems difficult to believe
>that a 16-year-old could have passed as a 9 year old!
>
>But I've searched a bit through the village church records, and it doesn't
>appear there were any other siblings (of her in-laws) with her name about
>age 9 that it might have been instead of my g-grandma.  But since ALL the
>ages are off - it's hard to be certain.
>
>And this ship's list has no other info to match up as another person
>suggested.
>
>Sigh...
>
>Carolyn
>
> >Message: 3
> >Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:29:09 -0800
> >From: Jack Leigh <jack.leigh at shaw.ca>
> >Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Lying about age on ship's passenger
> >       list
> >To: ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org
> >Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.20061129152909.00b17de8 at shawmail>
> >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >
> >
> >This is a subject I've often wondered about.
> >
> >My grandparents, and their two children, my father and his
> >sister, all have their ages recorded incorrectly on their
> >return to Canada from a trip "home" to England in 1914.
> >
> >At the time, their ages were 35, 38, 8, and 4 for my
> >grandfather, grandmother, father, and aunt respectively.  The
> >passenger list records them as 37, 35, 12, and 11.
> >
> >My grandfather was a Minister in the Anglican Church of Canada
> >and I know he would have had a hard time being dishonest, the
> >family was literate, and the English language wasn't a problem
> >since they were all English/Canadian.
> > But perhaps they wanted my grandmother to be known as younger
> >than her husband.  However, I can't think of any advantage in
> >having the children's ages recorded as so much older than they
> >were, nor can I see how anyone would be fooled by a four year
> >old being passed off as eleven.
> >
> >All the rest of the information in their passenger entries is correct.
> >
> >So my only explanation is just plain human error in recording.
> >
> >                          ......... Jack