Gwen, Unfortunately, birth registration was not required at that time And sometimes a midwife would just "forget" to register a birth. Also, if the family was Catholic it was deemed unimportant to have a civil registration as only a church record was important. Diane Jacobs New York In a message dated 11/06/2004 6:05:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, ny2obx@aol.com writes: Where would I look for her birth cert if I can't find it in Bklyn? I have researched this twice at NYC Municipal Archives with no luck. Thanks Mark I would look in the town in the immediate area of the parish in which she was baptised. It was traditional in those days that the first time the baby left its birthplace was to go to the church for its baptism and that was as soon as possible after birth (to minimise the possibility of it dying unbaptised) Women often went "home to mother" to give birth or if that was not possible to some supportive female usually a relative and if that was at some distance from where they lived that often was where the baptism took place. GmCC ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx

Hi, Gwen and Diane: Actually, civil registration began state-wide in 1881. Diane is correct. If they were Catholic, they may have ignored this and deferred to the church for the record of baptism. BUT, what you should do is check the NYS Birth Index (not NYC). Queens was not yet a part of NYC in 1893. The birth may have been registered with the State. Although the Municipal Archives does have some of the Queens "Town" records pre-consolidation, I have found records in the State Index where none were found in the indexes at the MA. Just a thought. Best regards. Nancy.