[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Lying about age on shp's passenger list

[JMPerl47 at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/30/2006 9:22:09 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
cgschott at earthlink.net writes:

You know  - this is actually one of the things that bothers me about my
specific  entry!  My g-grandmother would have been 16 at the time, but  it
appears that her age is listed as being 9.  It seems difficult to  believe
that a 16-year-old could have passed as a 9 year old!   

But I've searched a bit through the village church records, and it  doesn't
appear there were any other siblings (of her in-laws) with her name  about
age 9 that it might have been instead of my g-grandma.  But  since ALL the
ages are off - it's hard to be  certain.



OK, at the risk of sounding like I've gone completely 'round the bend, is  it 
possible they applied for emigration 7 years before they actually got to go  
and that the ship manifest indicates their ages at the time they applied to  
leave?
 
I realize it's a far-fetched idea but sometimes, one person's far-fetched  
idea gets brains to looking into things it might otherwise not have thought  of.
 
And, have you actually gotten to see the original manifest to see the  
numbers for yourself? If not, does the traveling group listed either before or  
after them on the transcribed list have the right ages? It so, it could be a  
transcription error.