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Re: Delayed Births



Interesting filing...by recording date, not date of birth.

Not that NH's system was ideal.  Old birth records were handwritten into a
large volume -- somewhat chronologically by date of birth.  Delayed birth
records were taped, glued and/or stapled to the front or back pages of the
appropriate volume for that person's date of birth, e.g. 1899 - 1905.  To
assist in finding records, town clerks often created an alpha cross-file
which identified which volume and page housed the original record.  The
downside was that some clerks corrected errors, made changes (e.g., adding a
name to replace "male" or "female") on the alpha file card but not on the
original record.  Most clerks (with space problems) will not dispose of the
alpha card files, until such time as they can compare each file card against
the corresponding volume record.

Paul R. Bergeron
City Clerk
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
Telephone: 603/589-3010
Fax: 603/589-3029
http://www.gonashua.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: Dean DeBolt [mailto:ddebolt@UWF.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2002 10:53 AM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: Delayed Births


Russell, that's an easy question because I learned it
firsthand.   When I was in Illinois, I received volumes of
"delayed birth" records from some of the counties.  In
Illinois, at the beginning of World War II (1942), the federal
government required birth certificates from people
beginning to work on munitions companies and the like.
Many of these folks (too old for enlisting, too young to
retire) were born in the years when birth certificates were
not done or in rural areas far from the county seat.

My grandfather, born in 1912, had to get a delayed birth
certificate from southern Illinois in order to get work at
the Illiopolis Munitions factory.

That's why so many in 1942.   But of course genealogists
and county clerks assume the birth certificates are by year,
so if you ask for any from 1912, both groups will say they
don't exist...even though the 1942 registers may have
hundreds.

Dean

Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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