Approximate Birthdate?

[spuddel]

Anything I find with my great grandfather that has his date of birth says Abt 1894 and I'm so confused by why? He was born in Ireland in Abt 1894, his ship's passenger list says same and a death notice I found in New York also says Abt 1894 so I'm pretty sure it's the right person. I found a marriage register years ago for him and my great grandmother but have since lost it, not sure that would have a date of birth but wouldn't you need a birth cert to get married, even back in the 1920s?

Can anyone shed any light on why this Abt followed his entire life until the 1950s? He had married parents and siblings who moved from Ireland to Scotland with him in the late 1800s

No I don't think you would. You would have had your banns read in the church where you lived or where your intended wife lived, nobody objected if it was patently obvious that the individual was over 18.

Thanks. Have just found his marriage registration. I still cannot fathom why it's Abt 1894 on every document for date of birth.

Have you tried to find his birth record on the genealogy website? I think there can be discrepancies in the records though - particularly in rural areas where it was a journey to go to register so sometimes it was left for a while & perhaps people could not then remember the exact date? Or sometimes baptismal records/dates were used instead. My grandfather’s birth certificate gives a different date of birth to what I remember celebrating when he was alive.