Her name was probably listed as such. Births were not kept in most states until 1908/9. Then the various spaces on the certificates were not always completed. Also during this period many babies were still being born at home. If the mother had not picked a name for the baby the space on the certificate was written as "baby Jones", "girl Jones" etc. and the certificate was filed as such. The parents could later go to the health department and apply for an amended certificate. You can look at the next census record for the name of the individual. The states were mandated by the government to start keeping data on births and deaths about 1890 however most did not start doing this until about 1908. Some states started keeping records by 1867 and these records were maintained in the Probate Court along with the marriage records. Unfortunately Pennsylvania did not maintain early records. In researching, I have found that Kentucky maintained all records even before 1867 and had the most detailed data on them. Ohio did well but the data on some were sketchy..

PA is quite uniform on birth records.They are located at the county seat from 1893 to 1905. after that they are at New Castle The larger cities may have different dates that they started keeping track of birth and death records. The doctor can only record what he knew or remembered.. Marriage records start at 1885 at the county seat and are still recorded. I prefer marriage records myself for research. Of course I gather ALL info that I can find Marilyn Marilyn Bess email [email protected] Researcher Bradford, Potter, Tioga, PA Chemung,Tioga,Tompkins,Schuyler,Steuben, NY ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 7:13 AM Subject: Re: [PA] Question about Birth Certificates > Her name was probably listed as such. Births were not kept in most states > until 1908/9. Then the various spaces on the certificates were not always > completed. Also during this period many babies were still being born at home. > If the mother had not picked a name for the baby the space on the certificate > was written as "baby Jones", "girl Jones" etc. and the certificate was filed > as such. The parents could later go to the health department and apply for > an amended certificate. You can look at the next census record for the name > of the individual. > > The states were mandated by the government to start keeping data on births > and deaths about 1890 however most did not start doing this until about 1908. > Some states started keeping records by 1867 and these records were > maintained in the Probate Court along with the marriage records. Unfortunately > Pennsylvania did not maintain early records. In researching, I have found that > Kentucky maintained all records even before 1867 and had the most detailed data > on them. Ohio did well but the data on some were sketchy.. > > > ********* > Visit the threaded archives of this list: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/PENNSYLVANIA > ********* > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message