U.S. Birth not registered!

[ginaruiz1998]

Hello! I am wondering if anyone her can give me some insight or perhaps lead me in the right direction. I contacted the State of Wisconsin, Dept. of Vital Records, for my Grandmother's Birth Certificate. Her date of birth, supposedly, was December 5, 1910. I have a copy of HER parent's marriage certificate, so I am certain that those names and spellings are correct. I received a letter back stating that they searched the records from December of 1908 through December of 1913 and resulted in NO record found. This is troubling me....I know she married my grandfather in Ilinois in January of 1932 ( I have a copy of the certificate)...wouldn't she have needed a birth record in order to marry? Does anyone have an idea of what I can do next? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

[johnnyonthespot]

In the year 1928 in Westchester County, NY, my mother's eldest sister (then age 22) married a man who was born January 17, 1891 (aged 37).

In order to make it go down a bit easier, he lied to all concerned and gave his birth year as 1897. It is that way on both their marriage license and marriage certificate. Apparently he did not need to provide proof of his date of birth; alternatively, perhaps he doctored the document to make the 1 in 1891 look like a 7.

He did not fess up concerning his true age for many years.

Perhaps your grandmother pulled something similar? Lied about her age so that she could marry without her parent's consent perhaps?

Where are you located? Apparently Wisconsin has a very liberal policy concerning vital records (New York State, are you listening???) - you can actually make an appointment to go to the Vital Records office in Madison and search the records yourself: http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/vitalrecords/genereq.htm

Do you need this birth certificate for a jure sanguinis application? If so, if your grandmother is not in the direct line, there is a good chance the document will not be required at all. The New York City consulate's website, for example, says non-direct line birth and death certificates are required, however it seems that they never ask for them at the actual time of application.

[ginaruiz1998]

Thank you for your reply! No, I don't need the document for anything other then basic family history. I'm just putting together a family book with all the birth/marriage/death records etc. that I can find!

It's a complete mystery as I found her on the 1920 and 1930 Census' for Milwaukee---and her birth year is consistent on both as 1910!

Is it possible that one just "slipped through the cracks" so to speak?

[corrado]

Absolutly, and slipped though the cracks is right! In those days one was born at home, it was up to the midwife to register the birth cert. Most of the time they were good about this, but if there were lots of woman pushing at the same time, or she was not good with paperwork its gone. I had this problem in Chicago. If the person is still alive they can register a delayed birth cert. If not there is nothing to be done.