How did births get registered around 1920?
Was it done by the attending doctor or by the parents? Or? I'm trying to understand how my aunt was registered as having been born a year later than she actually was. This was not a transcription error; it was intentional by the parents.
Which country are we talking about?
ReplyDeleteYour aunt may have been born at home and her parents were "self reporting" the event.
ReplyDeleteI would guess registrations varied by state. Which state was it?
ReplyDeleteDepending on the State in the USA (I am assuming we are talking USA here JL Beeken) by 1919 all states had a form but for some it was relatively new (federal act and agency set up in 1902 to come up with a standard form) - so a State just introducing the form was playing catch up. If birth at a hospital or city, they were more "timely." In smaller communities and home births - they had to make the trip to get it recorded.
ReplyDeleteSorry about being so vague. It was North Carolina and she was born at home. So I'm imagining this scenario where my grandfather says to my grandmother, Mark that on the calendar so we can fill out the form this time next year and no-one will know the difference.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Tessa Keough If they had to travel somewhere to register the birth, why would they bother?
ReplyDeleteWas this the first child in the family? Otherwise, what reason would there be to intentionally alter the birth date?
ReplyDeleteRon Walter Yes, first child.
ReplyDeleteJL Beeken I believe it was a rolling effort to make this mandatory. There is an interesting article about it that I read (will need to get link for you) but some States really fought it and others embraced it right away. The USA came late into the game of registering births and deaths for some reason. And I know of one instance when the births were registered when the final citizenship paperwork was done (went into city for federal courthouse, local registration and the big ticket items for their farm).
ReplyDeleteTessa Keough It seems to me it would have been a difficult thing to enforce unless/until the kids were in public school.
ReplyDeleteThey really went all out trying to hide this baby. Even managed to keep her out of the 1920 census.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that all the people who count in the family would know that the baby arrived 'early' and when. I don't understand the sense of it; wouldn't it have been smarter to alter the marriage date? Or, am I missing another reason?
ReplyDeleteRon Walter That's the trick, isn't it? Trying to put yourself in your ancestor's shoes and try to understand what they were thinking.
ReplyDeleteFamily that was 'around' at the time would have known the marriage and date of the first baby were too close. Nothing they could do about that.
I was wrong about the 1920 census. Have just scrolled through a bunch and, sure enough, almost all were taken in January. (Funny what you learn when you're paying attention.) She was born late January so they just scraped under the wire there.
Maybe they were trying to alter the future (and they succeeded) because as soon as they had to record her birth anywhere they started lying about it. She's recorded as having been born in 1921. They sent her to school a year late pretending she was 5 instead of 6. When she went, years later, to apply for a Social Security card, she said she was born in 1921.
Overall I'd say the point was to fool HER so she never knew. She didn't find out til she was in her 50's. I've forgotten the story of how that came about but I'll ask my mother again.
That's the same grandmother who said she was born in 1900 when actually she was born in 1899. No-one found out about THAT until her 75th birthday party. That's one ancestor I'd like to haul out of the grave and shake by the shoulders and see what else comes loose.
ReplyDeleteYour guess seems logical - I didn't think abou that; surprising that someone didn't tell her before she was 50 - but maybe they did and she didn't want to believe it until someone she couldn't doubt told her.
ReplyDeleteRon Walter No, she really didn't know about it. I think it had something to do with a passport application and then the truth came out. Which means some record somewhere had the truth. Boy, was she pissed, as the story went.
ReplyDeleteCelia Lewis If you liked that one, there's more. She started my mother in school at the age of 5 but said she was 6 and told my mother later, you were 'smart' and I knew you could keep up. WHAT was going on with that woman? No respect for dates.
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