After the Registration of Births and Deaths Acts 1874, it became compulsory to register the birth of a child within 6 weeks (42 days) on penalty of a fine. In order to avoid this, parents who had left registering their children late would often falsify the date of birth on a certificate by a matter... Continue Reading →

Some people falsely added years to their age on the 1911 census in order to qualify for the old-age pension (to which some people over 70 were entitled from January 1st 1909). Black and White Image of an Elderly Woman by Chalmers Butterfield, Via Wikimedia Commons