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Mixed up about their age-calculating


shootingstar

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A Chinese-Canadian friend told me at a funeral and thereafter, there were 3 different ages from different sources for the father who died of friend.  Different ages were 92, 91 and ...95. 

Then I learned that the older generation in China calculated years, not only by lunar instead of Julian calendar, but also at birth the baby was considered 1 yr. old. Birthday started at conception. Then if baby was born on Chinese New Year Day, s/he was already 2 yrs. old. ?  Wonder what a bonus year does for a person. ?

It's an old practice no longer used today...but stlll hangs around to confuse young 'uns. My parents decided when I was a late teen to be more specific about their age and birthday with us.

Otherwise, we wouldn't celebrate it. ☺️

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A simple "date of birth" value lets the proper age be calculated - with maybe a little wiggle room due to "recorded date" vs "actual date" being the fuzzy part.  Perhaps folks didn't report to gov't or a church or in a hospital ledger things like that 90 years ago in China (or parts of the US for sure), but additionally using a different calendar with no reference to any actual dates would be tough.

Does it matter? Probably not at all.

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3 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

Perhaps folks didn't report to gov't or a church or in a hospital ledger things like that 90 years ago in China (or parts of the US for sure)

My father was born at home in 1922.  He had no birth certificate.  He showed up on a census in 1930 (according to him - none of us ever saw a copy) as being a son at 8 years old.  As an adult, the Navy accepted his date of birth when he enlisted and carried that through to his discharge papers.  He always used his discharge papers whenever he needed to prove his age.  It was never challenged.

  

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1 minute ago, 2Far said:

Indeed. I was conceived ~2 weeks before my parents met. 

I see three possibilities here and one of those wouldn't even be technically correct.

1. You were adopted.

2. Your biological father wasn't your father.

3. You parents weren't exactly truthful and you were born 'premature' even though you were full term.

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10 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

A simple "date of birth" value lets the proper age be calculated - with maybe a little wiggle room due to "recorded date" vs "actual date" being the fuzzy part.  Perhaps folks didn't report to gov't or a church or in a hospital ledger things like that 90 years ago in China (or parts of the US for sure), but additionally using a different calendar with no reference to any actual dates would be tough.

Does it matter? Probably not at all.

No, it doesn't matter most of the time. It helps a lot if there's a birth certificate.  It helps after a person dies and surviving family members have to deal with probate and other executor matters.

I realize there may be the rare folks who think govn't should have no place in their lives ….at all.

However birth and death records in modern times at least in North America....these records are considered vital/critical as original source...is kept by the govn't authorities. They issue the official record now. The church doesn't play that role anymore going forward, probably since last few decades.

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