Category: Delayed Birth Certificate

No Records in Two States

My great grandfather was Howard Reed. There is conflicting evidence in records, some records say he was born in Nebraska, while others say Oklahoma. Nebraska reported that no record was found when I requested a birth certificate. He was born in 1905, before either state kept birth records.

His death certificate has a Social Security Number. I have requested a copy of his SS-5, his application for a Social Security Number, to determine his birth location. I have not yet received any thing from SSA.

Some records say he was born in Oklahoma. I requested a birth certificate, including possibly a delayed birth certificate. This week I got a letter from Oklahoma, and they found no record.

Now, he was definitely born, as he married and had several children, and lived his life. But, there may not be a record of his birth. There is no record in Nebraska or in Oklahoma. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t born, just that there may be no written record of his birth.

Next step is to wait for the SSA to respond, they should report his date and location of birth. I can follow up once I receive that document.

Mary Elliott delayed birth certificate; info about father

I got crazy busy with a job project unrelated to genealogy and have been unable to write a post for a while. I did want to provide an update on something, however.

The delayed birth certificate for Mary Elliott did provide some information about her father; it turns out his occupation was listed as a Deputy Marshal. This means records may be available, as he was an employee of the US Federal Government.

I made an inquiry, which was forwarded to the National Personnel Records Center (Civilian Personnel Records) in Valmeyer, Illinois. I recently got a response from them, which informed me that their location does not have early 1900s Civilian Records. My request has been forward to the Military Personnel Records, Civilian Archival Section, located in St. Louis, Missouri. A reply will be made from that location.

I expect to hear from them in a few weeks, and will report findings here when I hear from them.

I have no idea if records will be found, or what information will be in those records if located. It’s new territory for me. I’ll post results here when I have a response.

Delayed Birth Certificate update — sealed records?

I wrote a post here a few days ago regarding my great grandmother’s delayed birth certificate. Mary Elizabeth Elliott was born in 1909, and the State of Kansas did not record birth certificates until 1911. She filed for a delayed birth certificate, which requires affidavits to be submitted as evidence to prove the birth facts stated on the delayed birth certificate.

I was curious if those affidavits are available to me, as part of my genealogy research, and sent an email to the State of Kansas.

Here is their official reply:

Kansas is a closed record state, so those are now sealed records. It would take a court order for us to release any documents we have relating to the filing of the Delayed Birth Certificate.

Wow. This is unbelievably frustrating. I do not understand why the government people are making it more difficult to do genealogy research. This is my great grandmother, and I cannot find out more about her?

I understand the concern for identity theft. I also understand, to a certain extent, privacy for cases of adoption. This is not an adoption.

Let’s look closer at this particular case. The child in question was born in 1909. She filed for a delayed birth certificate in 1944. Her mother died in 1939, so no affidavit could be filed by the mother. Her father, born in 1881, who she was likely not in contact with, could have been deceased at that time, but certainly is deceased by now. The affidavits were submitted by the child’s grandparents (Albert William Jones, 1862-1946 & Josephine Rebekah Wilson, 1876-1951) who are certainly deceased by now as well. We are talking about my great grandmother, and my 3rd great grandparents. Everyone involved is now dead. Why are the records sealed if everyone is dead? It makes no sense to me.

Adoption (not this case) and identity theft is one thing, but this is unbelievably frustrating. What is the logic behind the law of sealing the documents?

Well, consider the complaint filed. I can’t do anything about it now. I urge anyone who works in a government office to consider the laws they pass and the effect those laws will have on people. There are documents available, sources that have information that may help me identify and learn more about my 2nd great grandfather, but I have no access to those records. Because those records are sealed. It takes a court order to get access to those records.

Wow. That’s a brick wall.