Display calculated Age at Time of Death

LegacyUser

WXMX-999 said: Calculated Age at Death. When you enter a Date of Birth and a Date of Death in the details section of the person page, why can't you have a feature that automatically calculates right there on that screen that displays how old the person was when they died? Like, "This person lived to be 72 years, 4 months, and 16 days." This feature might decrease the likelihood of data entry errors as well as provide immediate feedback to the user.

LegacyUser

Paul said: A similar issue was raised here recently. The main problem lies with whether these dates are to be trusted. I have come across a number of relatives who stated (or for whom were recorded) totally incorrect dates of birth.

In any case, do we really need to have such precise detail in order to evaluate whether two records are for the same person? I just had the case of two individuals named Abraham Potter being christened on the same date at parishes within 5 miles of each other. Would your idea have helped in determining which of them died on a certain date?

LegacyUser

WXMX-999 said: This isn't meant to be a solution for duplicate records. This suggestion is meant to address the issue of incorrectly entered dates, like when someone enters 1918 instead of 1818 as the date of birth. Another important advantage would be that it would be simpler to identify people who died in infancy or at a young age. Wouldn't it be nice to open a page and be able to glance immediately at the age calculation and know whether or not the person lived to adulthood? Currently, you have to do subtraction of DOB and DOD in your head to figure out age at death, and whether it was possible they lived long enough to have had spouse or children.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: A quick look at the timeline should provide some details about the dates. A birth date (or marriage or death) will be out of place if it is a century off (or if two numbers have been transposed). Places that are not consistent with where the person lived will show up on the map that the timeline uses.

If I'm not using my own computer, I will keep an inexpensive calculator handy. I normally do not need to use it, but there are times when I need it.

LegacyUser

Juli said: FS already does this. It's on the person's Time Line.

LegacyUser

WXMX-999 said: Yes, there are age calculations on the Time Line. Unfortunately, that is on a different Tab. It would be more helpful to have it in the Details Tab of the Person Page so we are not having to tab through several pages seeking this basic information.

LegacyUser

Erika Campbell said: I never calculate the death date for an ancestor. I calculate birth date from marriage date and marriage date from birth of 1st child. The dates are always preceded by "about". If an earlier child is found the dates will be adjusted, but a death date cannot be calculated and it is not necessary. If a person married then he or she didn't pass away as a child. That is the most important thing.
Erika

LegacyUser

Paul said: Please do not follow this practice in Family Tree! I have seen this genealogically unsound practice on many occasions and feel it is just plain wrong. A common practice with some people has been to take 21 years from the marriage date to calculate the birth year of a female and 25 years for a male.

As mentioned in another topic, the impression gained (especially when viewing a family in Landscape) is that an individual WAS actually born in that year. In any case, why should they be "about 21" any more than "about 41, 51, 61", etc?

If a birth year - or death year - is not known, the field in the Vitals section should be left blank. As for the date of birth of a first child, my ancestors had their first child at varying times from their marriage event - between 3 months and 9 years. Not every field / section in Family Tree has to be completed. Speculation can do more harm than good.

LegacyUser

Tom Huber said: There are always exceptions. It really is up to the individual user to apply an exception or not.

In the case of Pieter Claesen 9312-XFX, I settled on a range of years. The reason behind this is because the fraudulent genealogy provided a specific (but fabricated) date of birth. I usually will never speculate on a date, but in this case, I felt it was necessary and provided the reasoning in the reason statement. I wish we had note capabilities that could be tagged. However, in working with Suzanne's relatives, I suggested something that I am going to do with Pieter's record -- place the reasoning as a memory and then create a source for that memory and tag it to the birth record.

cthanorda

I would love to have the death age that shows up in the timeline added beside each person's name in the family listing as well! That is a brilliant idea. I would like to be able to look down the family list of my grandparents 15 children and see who lived the longest! How many died in infancy, what ages they all lived to be - at a glance.

ie: Bessie Smith

1875–1952 • 81 • LTB4-4JK

Great idea! TKM

Rick McClelland

I love the idea to show age at death on all screens throughout the displays in family search to include person information, family information and all variations of the tree.