Filey Genealogy & Connections has 92 people called APPLEBY in the database. I have added another forty – but there are just three with a memorial in the churchyard. Francis Appleby, his wife Catherine nee TOALSTER, and their son Frank are not yet represented on the FamilySearch Shared Tree. While gathering information that would enable a connection to be made to Applebys with IDs, I noticed some some discrepancies in the data that I thought required some attention.

Frank is a second great grandson of Thomas Appleby and Rachel LEPPINGTON. It was a surprise to discover that a sister and brother of Rachel’s married siblings of Thomas.

But this post is about James and the discrepancy marked by the red X.

Five of the seven sources attached to James are census returns, and all give his estimated birth year as 1862. If he died in 1944 his calculated age of death would be 82.

Free BMD  has this record ­…

Deaths Jun 1944  

APPLEBY James, [Age at Death] 80, Scarbro’ 9d 311.

…indicating birth in 1864. Further investigation shows this to have been another James, born in Seamer to James Appleby and Ann TROWHELL.

Another source attached to “our James” is the 1939 Register, a “war census” taken on 29 September, which gives his birthdate as 5 October 1860 and his calculated age, therefore, is 79. If the information is correct, he would have celebrated his eightieth birthday six days later.

In the other censuses, however, his given age is remarkably consistent for his birth in 1861. (Do the math, bearing in mind that his birthday was after the censuses – if October is the correct month).

Here is the GRO Births Index record.

APPLEBY, James, Mother’s Maiden Surname: LEPPINGTON. GRO Reference: 1861 D Quarter in BRIDLINGTON Volume 09D Page 269.

This fits perfectly with the 1871 to 1911 censuses where his given age ends with a nine, every time.

The seventh source for James on the Shared Tree is his marriage to Rachel on 20 August 1882. He informed the clerk that he was 21, which is correct for his birth in 1861.

His Free BMD death registration offers this –

Deaths Jun 1940

APPLEBY, James, [Age at Death] 81, Buckrose 9d 108.

Filey Genealogy & Connections gives 25 June 1940 as the date of his burial and his last address as 38 Queen Street, Filey – the address listed in the 1939 Register. But, if you do the math, his age should have been 78 – or 79 if the Register had used 5 October 1860 as its birthday benchmark. I can’t explain this discrepancy.

(Obscured by the transctiption label are George, James & Rachel’s son, and widow Jane Newbold, housekeeper. I don’t yet know her maiden name.)

Find James and Rachel on the Shared Tree.

Tree 60 · Glen Gardens