Thursday, March 12, 2009

Rebecca N. Sherinian - birthdate

Ok. Please help me discover the real birthdate of Rebecca Nigogos Sherinian!

It is so confusing!
  1. AF - 24 Jan 1868 (The date initially submitted to familysearch.org)
  2. IGI - 24 Jan 1868 (The date used for temple ordinances).
  3. Odyssey of an Armenian Doctor - Cal 1868
    1. It is listed that she was married at 18 years old. If she was, and they were married on 23 Nov 1886, she was born in 1868.
  4. Personal History of Arick Kezerian - 24 Jan 1868
    1. It is listed that she was married at 16 years old. If she was, and they were married on 23 Nov 1886, she was born in 1870 [Cal].
  5. Death certificate - 24 Jan 1873 (This would make Rebecca 13 years old when she married Nishan!!)
  6. Death certificate calculated - Cal 24 Jan 1873
    1. Calculated with 1 Jan 1928 as the death date, and with age at death listed as 54 years, 11 months, and 7 days.
So, with this information, now we get to dissect it and figure out what should be considered the true birthday.

Her death certificate could be considered a good source of information since it was filled out by her husband--however, we also have to take into consideration that she might have lied about her age while she was married, OR her parents lied about her age when she was married, making her older, or younger, depending on what they wanted.

I am going to say that I'm absolutely certain that Rebecca N.'s birthday month and day are definitely January 24th. The year, however, is the problem. We've got 1868, 1870, and 1873.

Should we trust 1873 on the the death certificate filled out by the husband, Nishan K.?

Or should we trust 1868 on the records of the oldest son and daughter of Rebecca N. and Nishan K.? I believe that these two records were the sources of the information used in both the AF and the IGI--so I am not counting them as additional sources proving that her birthday is in 1868.

Any thoughts? Comments? Additional information?

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