This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: jjcaffrey Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.counties.suffolk/8017.2/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Christine, Finding a birth record from Boston in that time period is unlikely. http://www.americanancestors.org/Blogs.aspx?id=23572&blogid=111 The only Robert Cunningham birth that appears in the early MA records is the son of reuben/Olive. Your best bet is to try and find his marriage record, although, if that occurred in CA, that might be difficult as well. You could try for the death record, but I'm not sure how much confidence I would have. In case you need membership for the above link, the text is below: Question: I am having difficulty finding Boston births from the 1820's and 1830's. I find that my ancestors appear in the city directories, but why is it there are no births recorded for the children? The 1820-1840 U.S. Census enumerates the family with children under the age of 10 in each case. Answer: During the the period from 1790 to 1850 there were very few births recorded in the town and later city of Boston. Many genealogists have found that searching for church baptism records to offer some solution to these missing records. I would suggest looking for the marriage of the parents to determine the religion. If the marriage occured in Boston you can acquire the name of the minister from the record. NEHGS has the Boston marriages 1801-1848 on microfiche at Microtext Library on the Fourth Floor. After acquiring the name of the minster, then search for him in a Boston city directory to determine his religious affiliation. NEHGS has many Boston church records on microform, books, manuscripts and CD-Rom. John Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.