Cannot find records to verify births

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Some things in the family tree I am looking at seem impossible. . ..

WLSachs

We are trying to find something consistent about my wife’s paternal side of the family. There were 4 sisters including her grandmother. I swear they were in witness protection from each other. Three of them list one of 2 relatively small towns in PA for their birth places. They’re right next to each other. No one has a birth certificate. And yet we can find birth certificates of children from other families during the same period of time. Their oldest sister consistently insisted she was born in Jersey City, NJ - again no proof. They all note a variety of last names and they’ve made up their father’s name - sometimes they agree - sometimes they don’t.

Her great-grandmother and great -grandmother are on a passenger manifest which matches their marriage record in Poland, but w/ 2 boys - one of which I think I found their grave in Jersey City.

Is this just one of those occasions where you just throw your hands up in the air and move along? Oh - and my wife has no living relatives. Suggestions? What would you do?

JimKrueger

That makes my confusion seem very slight indeed. I would put it on hold until I had nothing else to do.

JK

Julia Szent-Györgyi

@WLSachs, first, for future reference: if you have a brand-new question rather than a comment about or answer to an existing one, it's best to use the big blue "Ask a Question" button that's at the top right of nearly every Community page.

Second, you could try asking about your great-aunts in the "Atlantic States Research" Group (https://community.familysearch.org/en/group/278-atlantic-states-research); there may be people there with a better idea of what records should be available in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. (I live here but don't have any family history here, so all I can contribute is a vague memory that birth and death registration started in 1906.)

Áine Ní Donnghaile

I concur with Julia's suggestion that you post in Atlantic States Research.

New Jersey implemented early registration of vital records, in the 1840s, but compliance was not great in the early years. Depending on religion, there are many early NJ baptismal record sets available on FS, Ancestry, and other sites.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

FYI - there's a free online presentation on Pennsylvania vital records tomorrow (19 March) from the ACPL (Allen County Public Library).