Doubt about match because of age

Peter35938

Hi,
I'm new here, so I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask specific questions about persons/matches... However, I'm running into a curious example.

It is clear that old documents sometimes use different spellings or variants of the same name. Also, I've found that ages can be 1 or 2 years off, especially when someone has died and people probably didn't know the exact age anymore.

I now found an inconsistency which I really don't know how to interpret.
Please allow me to describe three documents which are (or are not) about the same person.

Maria Kilian has married Andreas Schisser in 1836. Her age at the time is 20.
Source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZMN-KGM5

Four years later, Marianna Kilian and Andreas Schisser have a child.
It's in the same small village as the marriage (Reichfelde) and four years later (1840), so I'm confident that these are the same people. My conclusion: Maria is sometimes called Marianna. Most probably the same person.
Source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZMN-LV72

Now, the third document is about the birth/baptism of a Marianna Kilian, again in the same village of Reichfelde.
The year is 1818, which almost matches up with the age of Maria Kilian at her wedding (first document). Sounds like it must be the same person.
Source: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6ZMN-D4R2

I'm fairly confident that these documents are all about the same person, except for one curious detail: her age. In 1836, at her wedding, she is supposed to be 20, while the birth/baptism suggests that she would have been 18. I understand that small inconsistencies like this are found a lot in old documents, but in this case, I wonder why someone who is at the age of 18 or 20 wouldn't know their exact age... I would expect that people know their own age when they're young.

I'm interested to know what other people think about this. Do you think inconsistencies like this happen more often and the age in the document could simply be wrong? Or is this a red flag and might this be about two different persons, even though all the other information seems to match up?

Paul W

I wouldn't worry about that age difference. She might not have been the one that gave her age at the time of the marriage. Otherwise, yes, she might have deliberately lied about her age to make herself appear to be older than 18. You do not say what age is recorded for her spouse: sometimes this is a factor, whereby a couple do not want to show too big an age difference.

If all other factors indicate a consistent identity, I would not place too much importance on this discrepancy.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

The earlier the record, the more likely it may be that the person really didn't know his or her exact age. A high percentage of people could neither read nor write, and the celebration of birthdays was not a thing for the average person. They didn't have to prove age to buy a beer, vote, or drive a car.

vjdavis

Also consider that a person is not aware of their age until a certain point, at which time they are told when they were born. Were they told correctly? Who told them? Are the people that know the precise age even still alive at that point? (and are they literate?) Does the person retain that exact knowledge, or do they forget the particulars? If you cannot write it down, and there is no reason to use the knowledge, and there is no written record, are you going to remember it with precision?

eta: And then, of course, there are those that wish to appear younger than they really are and deliberately lie about their age. You'll see this more in census records where women of a certain age barely advance in years.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Per the index, Joannes Killian had two wives and eight children in the first quarter of the 1800s in Reichfelde:

Joannes Killian and Catharina:
Anna circa 1802, died 1807
Catharina 1805, died 1807
Marianna 1807, died 1814 (with Marianna given as mother)

Joannes Killian and Marianna Sarnowska:
Joannes 1811, died 1814
Josephus 1815
Marianna 1818
Helena 1821
Michael 1824

It's quite possible that Marianna's parents got confused about which surviving child was born in which year. It doesn't look like the priest was checking the baptismal register when entering the marriages. (It's generally pretty obvious when they do: they record ages as years, months, and days.) For an orally-reported age, two years off out of twenty is not that bad.

Peter35938

Thanks everyone, you're all giving good reasons why the age difference shouldn't be taken too seriously 👍

Much appreciated!