Hello, I just recently sent for a copy of a birth certificate from 1900 from the Massachusetts Archives. I received a letter back stating that they couldn't find a birth certificate though the death certificate of the person stated the person was born in Boston, Mass. Is there another place that would hold the birth records. Or does anyone have any suggestions on where to look next? Thanks so much!!!! With Warm Regards, Wendy

At 06:04 PM 4/4/2002, Wendy wrote: > I just recently sent for a copy of a birth certificate from 1900 from > the Massachusetts Archives. I received a letter back stating that they > couldn't find a birth certificate though the death certificate of the > person stated the person was born in Boston, Mass. Is there another place > that would hold the birth records. Or does anyone have any suggestions on > where to look next? > >Wendy A couple of thoughts: 1. How close is the witness/informant on the death cert to the subject? A brother or sister or parent of the deceased would likely know more about the birth than a child or spouse. 2. When and where (what jurisdiction/location) did the death occur, and how near in time & place to the birth? People often generalize when they move away, and it might be said that someone was born in Boston when, in fact, they were born nearby. My mother was raised in Boston, and I always thought she was born there, but she was born in Lynn and moved to Boston as an infant. Even the spouses are many times wrong. 3. Where did you get the date of birth? Death certificates are often unreliable means to figure birth dates from the age of the deceased. People have been known to fudge, and to forget. Again, who supplied the information? Do you have other corroboration? Even SSN probably wouldn't have a birth cert on file for this app. A few notes about the Mass. Archives: The people there are very good and conscientious, a lot of volunteers due to staffing/budget cuts, and there will likely be more cuts. Most VRs are on microfilm, and indexed by bound volumes of 5-year periods (1900-1905, 1906-1910), with names, town, and reference to volume and page. The staff person would usually look in the next or preceding volume, if the name wasn't found where you suggested. But, if there are slight differences to the name (commonly, Gildart vs. Geldart), they probably would not check the alternate, unless you suggest it. The records on film are "returns" to the state from cities and town entities. They may not have all the information that the town record has. Earlier returns were on transcribed by town clerks on forms supplied by the state. Further, this information was supplied to town clerks by doctors and others. So transcription errors are possible. (Later returns are carbon copies of the originals, but not in 1900). These listings of returns may have been sent to the state once a year. Usually, they were posted in chronological order, but occasionally not. I have seen some town's returns that, due to the constancy of the handwriting and perfect chronological order, look as if the pages were all filled out the same day, from a pile of papers the clerk had been collecting. Others look as if they had been recorded as received. The returns are arranged on film first by year, and then the cities and towns are arranged alphabetically then grouped by county, alphabetically. One film may include parts of more than one year. Additionally, there may be some odd records at the end--corrections, late returns, etc. Point being, that it is not a simple matter of looking at all records for a particular date, as that may involve a number of films to cover the 351 cities and towns of Massachusetts (plus those lost since 1900). Well, I've probably given you some food for thought, but not solved your problem. Good luck, and good hunting. Bob Geldart bgeldart@aics.net Maynard, MA