Reused Birth Certificate --
My dad was the youngest of a family of 8 kids raised in the hills of West Virginia in the 1920s/30s. All kids were born at home with little to no medical care. None of them got birth certificates as kids. All were born in severe poverty.
As the boys got older, they wanted to join the service and fight the war — but were too young. They would use the birth certificate of the oldest kid (he died shortly after birth). Took his name as their 'nickname' and joined the service. The only reason their was a birth certificate was because he died and they wanted to have a proper burial so their was the need for a death certificate.
As I find all their 'records', they all tie back to the dead child. If I detach him from each of the other boys, I now have lots of missing data. Someone not familiar with the family will then start detaching from the dead child and reattaching to the older boys- not knowing the circumstances behind this dilemma.
What's the best way to correct this info given I have no primary documents for the older kids?
In my father's instance, when he needed a passport we had to have his 80 year old sister (has since died) write a letter to the government stating that as far as she knew he was his brother and when his birthday had been celebrated. (just an example of that generation's solution to missing documents that we all take for granted now days).
[name removed for privacy]
Answers
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Sounds like you need very thorough notes on every child to explain the situation. It also sounds like this would be a fascinating history to write up fully and post as either a PDF document memory tagged to each of them or as a story added to each. "Life Without A Birth Certificate" could be the title or come up with something catchy like "According to the Government They Were Never Born."
It would also be good to use the Notes section in each source to explain why you know any one particular source is on the right person and duplicate that in the Reason this source is attached box.
Basically, anywhere you can put an explanation make use of the option.
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A Discussion on each related profile would be a good idea. Only you can delete or edit a Discussion.
The circumstances are not uncommon. My father was born in a northern city in 1921: no birth certificate. My mother and her two sisters were born in the rural South in 1916, 1919, and 1922: no birth certificates. My mother's older sister does have a delayed birth certificate - from 1980 - because she needed to prove she was eligible for her deceased husband's pension. My grandparents were long deceased; one of my great-aunts gave a deposition, and a copy of my grandfather's Bible was submitted.When my father needed a passport, also in the 1980s, my grandmother was still living, was not well and completely deaf. I went with my father to the passport office to attest that he was who he said he was and was born when he said he was. Obviously, I was born long after he was!
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Thanks for the advice… I'll start getting some of this tied together on the first son that reused Fred's birth certificate.
lol … it is interesting how creative people can be when it comes to government documentation.
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This was quite fascinating. I'm guessing their employment did not require signing up for Social Security, which would have required delayed birth certificates.
To reiterate above, on the Collaborate tab be sure to use the Discussion section and not the Notes section. Notes can be edited and deleted by anyone. Discussions only by the poster.0 -
@Nyx773 My father was signed up for Social Security, as an 18-year old. He was also in the US Navy for 40 years. No birth certificate was required at that time. In fact, when I signed up for Social Security, I did not have to show a birth certificate.
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It might seem like overkill, but for such a specific and unique issue, I think it's worth adding both a discussion AND a note for every concerned PID.
The discussion section because it can't be deleted by anyone else. But the note can be marked as an alert, which activates the "Important research has been done on this person. Please read these alert notes before making changes" banner on the profile landing page.
I do think people are more cautious about making changes when that alert appears, which is crucial in this instance. It could easily be a copy/paste in both sections, or something simple in the note like "Please see discussion below for details of important research".
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I have grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles born after 1890 who had to provide baptism records, signed affidavits, letters from ministers and other documents to acquire a "delayed" birth certificate, in order to register for Social Security in West Virginia. I have most in my possession. I also have some of the original SS documents. I'm not sure of other states but if WV required it, I would think others would. In 1963, I registered when I was employed and a driver's license was required which required a proof of birth date. There was a great deal of activity in 1935-36 acquiring the necessary documents.
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@RaniM Be careful in writing your "Alert" notes not to include names of living people due to privacy laws. For example, I found a family listed on the 1950 US Census with deceased parents who were born 1913-1915 with children who are still living in 2026 - yes those children are in their late 70's-early 80's but they still have a right to privacy
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It amazes me how often I come across identified clearly living people on notes/alerts/discussions. It's bad enough on sources (e g. obituaries), but a profile contributor typing this stuff in on purpose? I know I should really report it as Abuse, but I don't want the contributor banned, just urgently educated about protecting living people's privacy ...
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My aunt enrolled in Social Security in 1941. Her delayed birth certificate was created in 1980. One is not connected to the other.
My father enrolled in Social Security in 1938; he never had a birth certificate, delayed or otherwise.
My mother and her younger sister enrolled in Social Security before 1951; neither ever had a birth certificate of any kind. Both died before they were old enough to collect Social Security.2 -
Yes, that's always worth keeping in mind @maryellenstevensbarnes1. In this case though, OP is having issues with other contributors editing the sources of those affected, without knowledge of the particularities. The fact that others can make changes implies that the PIDs concerned are for already deceased individuals. There would be no need to make mention of living individuals in flagging the situation in alert notes or discussions. I'm not writing the notes myself, simply making a suggestion for how OP might combat well-meaning contributors making erroneous changes.
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