Forever Young

Ironic and somewhat amusing is the number of my Scottish female relatives who fibbed about their ages on census records and even their marriage registrations. One great grandmother consistantly reported herself as being born in 1862, when she was clearly recorded in the 1861 census as a two year old. Usually female age fibbers did so in the instance that their husbands were 5 to 15 years younger than themselves, and closer to the age when their ability to produce offspring might come into question. Understandable, when marriage and family was almost the only career option for women until the 20th century. Amusing is the part where , as they grew older , the age gap between them and their younger husbands ususally grew smaller (as in census records) and when they became elderly they often started telling the truth about their birth year.
Ironic is the part where, in my family, the the most blatant and habitual "offenders" were the girls of the Young family !