Cora Edna Fast ^{1 2 3 4}

  General Notes:

The gravestone has weathered quite badly and it is difficult to tell her exact age at death but supposedly it provides "d/o J&M, died Jan 14, 1888(?), age 8y 3m 16d". This would lead one to believe that she was born late in 1879. However, the 1880 US Census record gives her age in 1880 as 5 which would indicate that Cora was born in 1874 instead of 1880. This would mean that she was 13 years old when she died instead of 8. Either the figures 8 or 13 can be mistaken for one another on such a poorly weathered gravestone.

I have not seen the actual census record image but I'm wondering if it is possible that she was born late in 1879 and the census enumerator meant to write 5/12, meaning 5 months, but instead wrote just the number 5.

If her age on the 1880 census were 5 years, then her birth year was 1874.
If her age on the 1880 census were 5/12, then her birth year was 1879.

Assuming the date of death was 14 Jan 1888 (the year is somewhat difficult to tell) then:
If her birth year was 1874, then her age at death was 13.
If her birth year was 1879, then her age at death was 8
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  Birth Notes:

Name: Cora E. Fast
Event Type: Birth
Event Date: 08 Aug 1874
Event Place: Ashland, Montgomery Township, Ohio, United States
Gender: Female
Father's Name: Jacob Fast
Mother's Name: Melissa Berlingane

Citing this Record
"Ohio, County Births, 1841-2003," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRSZ-QG5 : 13 March 2018), Cora E. Fast, 08 Aug 1874; citing Birth, Ashland, Montgomery Township, Ohio, United States, county courthouses, Ohio; FHL microfilm 2,079,446.
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  Noted events in her life were:

• Birth Image: 8 August 1874, in Montgomery Township, Ashland County, OH.

• She has alternate birth date of 1879 and a birth location of Ohio.

This incorrect birth year was calculated by a misreading of the badly weathered gravestone which gave her age at death of 13 which is so poorly legible that the 13 has been read to indicate 8. Using an age of only 8 results in the birth year being represented as 1879 instead of the correct 1874. ⁶

• She appeared on the 1880 US Census in Jackson Township, Ashland County, OH on June 1880. ³

1880 US Census
Page 76B, Roll 0991
Jackson Township, Ashland County, Ohio
Cora Fast..Daughter..5..OH
(Living with parents.)

NOTE - The age of 5 could be an incomplete notation by the enumerator that her age was actually 5/12 or 5 months.
.

• She was buried after 14 January 1888 in the Polk Cemetery in Polk, OH.

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