Ancestor Birthday - January 26th - John W. Smalley 1832-1914

John Wilson Smalley was my 2nd great-grandfather. If you check my website you will find quite a lot of information about him:

http://www.joanneskelton.com/p16.htm#i379

It shows his birth as 26 Jan 1932 in Adams County, Ohio and his marriage to Rachel Hemphill 26 Apr 1856. His obituary notes his service in the Civil War from 1861-1864. The listed censuses show he was in Adams County, Ohio in 1860; in Clinton County, Ohio in 1870; in Saline County, Nebraska in 1880; and by 1895 he was in Sherman County, Kansas. He continued living there through 1900, 1905 and 1910 before his death 2 Jul 1914, which is marked on his gravestone in Goodland Cemetery, Goodland, Sherman County, Kansas.

What more can I write about him? Next week I plan to write more about his Civil War service. Now I'd like to share some of the difficulties in determining a birth year before official registrations. Ancestry's Red Book, edited by Alice Eichholz, Revised Edition, 1992, page 523, states: "Ohio enacted a statute in 1856-57 that required birth, death, and marriage registration, a law that was generally disregarded." But even if obeyed it would be over 20 years too late to help our situation.

John's death certificate, gravestone and obituary all give his birth year as 1832. But even his obituary creates a contradiction as it states he was 27 in 1861 and 30 in 1864, which equates to an 1834 birth. His marriage record of 1856 shows his age as 23, so this equals an 1833 birth.
Then when you check each census entry, which are not known for exact correctness, you find:

1850 age 14 = 1836

1860 age 26 = 1834

1870 age 37 = 1833

1880 age 47 = 1833

1895 age 67 = 1838

1900 age 68 = 1832

1905 age 74 = 1831

1910 age 74 = 1836

In his military pension records he was not a lot more consistent. In his application from 1890 he gave his age as 57 which equals 1833, but then in 1909 his age is given as 77, so this pushes his birth year back to 1832.

So how do I know when he was born? I don't. I can't see that I will ever know for sure, but I have chosen to use the date that the family was using at the end of his life: 1832.