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This actually seems to segway into a great research question: did former slaves lie about when their young children were born (on the margins) to push their birth into the post 1865 [or 63 in say Louisiana]? Or at least did they do this in a family/folk history way? What does the data on death certificates tell us?
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Maybe they were only allowed to sign some form of registry after emancipation, and the "birth" date was the date of registration, no matter how old they were.