1904 is when the state started to take care of the Birth and Death Records. Prior to, it was the county court house, but not always. Some court houses kept records others did not. I send in between 3 and 10 request a month to the state as part of my research and a big family. The year is searched, I know this as it came in the form of a letter from the state regarding one of my request. Delayed birth Certs were for people who were born before Birth Certificates were issued. For example applying for a Soc. Security Card. Hope this helps Rick ----- Original Message ----- From: <JTJTJ5@aol.com> To: <PABUTLER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 5:46 PM Subject: Re: [PABUTLER-L] Trouble finding Birth Certificate. > In a message dated 4/7/03 5:31:02 PM Eastern Daylight Time, > ccallari@rochester.rr.com writes: > > > My question: if on the form I listed him as being born in Butler, do they > > (The PA Vital Statistics folks) look just at that county when searching, > > or > > do they do a global search for anyone with that name/date born in the whole > > state of PA? > > > > I think they might look for that date throughout the whole state, but I > can't say that for sure. > > > Additional question: Do birth records for the 1917 time period exist at the > > county level? > > > > There might be a birth record at the county level if your ancestor had to > apply for a delayed birth certificate. This was done when a birth was not > recorded at the time it occurred, but then the person later needed some proof > of his/her age...usually for Social Security purposes. These delayed birth > records can be a goldmine of genealogical information, because they include > affidavits from family members who were alive at the time of the birth and > testify as to the validity of the date. Hope this helps. > > Irene Crawford > JTJTJ5@aol.com > > > ==== PABUTLER Mailing List ==== > To contact Ed Book, List Maintainer, e-mail to: > pabutler@earthlink.net >