Standard for Estimating Birth Date?

[Ryan Holmstrom]

Hello all!
   I have been working a great deal with the Mantalslängder lately to find my 17th century ancestors and have been quite successful. However, as there are no ecclesiastical records for the time, it is not possible to know their true birth, marriage, and death dates. As such, how should I estimate such? Specifically, I was wondering if there is any genealogical standard for estimating birth dates. The one I have noticed most often is substracting 25 years from the first known child's birth date.
   Is there some standard I should follow or should I merely use the sources I have to make an estimate? Thank you!

[Bertil Strömberg]

Hello Ryan,
I don't know how well you can read Swedish, and this is a very long text, but if you want to see a comprehensive study of the Swedish registration system, you can try this link: https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/attvarafolkbokford/folkbokforingenshistoria./densvenskafolkbokforingenshistoriaundertresekler.4.18e1b10334ebe8bc80004141.html#Nr2.As to your specific question: 1635 the lowest age for "mantalsskrivning" was 12 years with no upper limit, 1652 - 1840 the lower limit was 15 and the upper 63, 1841 - 1856: 17 and 60 years, 1856 - 1863: 18 and 60 years. There were several possibilities to be exempted from tax, e.g. illness and poverty. Also nobility and some civil servants were exempted. You should also be aware of the fact that people had no incentive to state their correct age, and in the 17th and 18th centuries actually did not know it, so some persons are one year registered as "utgamla" (what I read as "too old for payment") and the next year appear as tax payers./Regards Bertil