Daily Ancestoranno aetatis
Anno aetatis, often anno aetatis suae, means in the year of his or her age; on a gravestone, anno aetatis 70 usually means the person was 69.
Anno aetatis suae means in the year of his (or her) age. It counts the year of life the person was in, not completed birthdays. Someone in the 70th year of age has had 69 birthdays, just as the first year of life ends at age one.
You see it on older gravestones and memorials, sometimes shortened to A.A.S. Not every carver used it strictly, so test the age against a baptism or birth record before you adjust the birth year.
As seen in a recordColonial gravestone inscription
obiit 3 Mar. 1761, anno aetatis suae 70
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "anno aetatis." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/latin/anno-aetatis. Last checked 2026-10-01.