Birth name and birth certificate do not match
Hello.
I’m not a genealogy pro, I just dabble. I thank in advance anyone who might help me.
My mother always knew her name to be Jeannette May CLARK. She was given up for adoption or to an orphanage shortly after her birth. She knew no other, nor did our family.
After years of mostly ineffective searching - and delving everywhere I knew to delve - I found she was born Jeannette May ANDERSON. Along with a fee and my identification, I submitted this information to the State of New Hampshire Vital Records department. They issued a birth certificate to my long deceased mother. (She would have been very happy). I was (am) elated. I finally had formal “proof” that she existed.
So… how do I go about seeing that her CORRECT information is entered into the necessary places? (I’m not sure I even know what those are).
ANY help/guidance/direction would be appreciated. Thank you.
Cheryl
Answers
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Congratulations on the success of your search!! Great Sleuthing.
As for how or where to make or edit your mother's name, this Article might be helpful How do I enter my ancestor's name if it changed?
You may also wish to add some clarifying information in the Life Sketch area, on her Person/Detail page, as well as attach the documentation you so diligently searched for. And now , in Family Search, your mother may be connected to both her biological line and her adopted line.
This provides her descendants the opportunity to explore both family lines
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Hello.
I am an inexperienced genealogy dabbler so please-and-thank you for your patience and suggestions for the direction in which I need to go.
My Mother (known always to me by her maiden name Jeannette May Clark) was (as far as I can tell) born out-of-wedlock. At the age of 1 year I found her listed as a “boarder” and know she was placed in various foster homes when young.
While alive, my Mom was never able to find her birth certificate. After she and my Dad married - in order for them to move overseas (he was in the Navy), she had to have the matron at the foster home write a letter on her behalf because the matron knew Mom’s story. Mom was then allowed to leave (and return to) the United States with Dad.
My Mom passed in 1993, always wanting a birth certificate, never finding one.
I, her daughter, spent years dabbling and sleuthing and finally found a birth entry for my Mom in some old church records. Scandal being what it was, I believe the hope was that no one would ever find it.
At birth, my Mom’s actual name was JEANNETTE MAY ANDERSON, NOT Jeannette May Clark. And I now have a copy of Mom’s birth certificate from the State of New Hampshire that says so. I have written evidence of her EXISTENCE, something Mom wanted all her life and could never find.
How, please, do I enter this new information? How do I correct a lifetime of errors? Or do I?
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Costigan
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Thank you. I’d not seen this and just entered another post with additional information. This is difficult for me.
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You might find some help/guidance in this recent post by Paul Chiddicks. https://chiddicksfamilytree.com/2023/01/22/ethical-dilemmas-and-how-to-approach-them/
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You stated, "how do I go about seeing that her CORRECT information is entered?"
Do keep in mind that just because she had more than one name, that does not mean only one is correct and any other are wrong. Many people have multiple names during life and all are correct. Family Tree allows you to enter all the names. You do need to decide which to use in the main Vitals name field. After that be sure to put all the others under Alternate Names. In the situation you describe, I would probably put her adoptive name in under Vitals since it was given to her shortly after birth and is the name she used throughout her life then put her adoptive name under Alternate Names. Include explanations
Here is how I have done this for someone I was working on recently:
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If your mother has the previously known info on FamilySearch, you can edit her vital info and add birth parents, should you choose to. That decision is completely yours. If you need help adding more parents or editing her info, please reach out and ask.
mod note - Community is an online public forum and therefore searchable. For privacy reasons, your post was edited to remove the attachment you posted. Please see the Community Code of Conduct for more details.
Update: I merged your discussions into the same place.
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Thank you everyone. I will look at your suggestions.
Cheryl
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