Birth records and delayed birth certificates

When states began registering births

Massachusetts passed the first state registration law in 1842, according to the history of vital statistics published by the National Center for Health Statistics, and a few other states followed, but most early laws were poorly enforced. Some states recorded births at the county level long before they did so statewide. Virginia, for example, kept county birth registers from 1853 to 1896; from 1897 to 1911 most localities recorded no births, though a few cities kept registering them, and statewide birth records begin in 1912. North Carolina's state office holds births from 1913; earlier births are at the county register of deeds.

The federal government tracked how complete each state's registration was. The national birth-registration area began in 1915 with 10 states and the District of Columbia: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. Other states joined one by one until all 48 states were included by 1933. Admission meant a state had an adequate law and registered most of its births, judged by standards similar to the death-registration area's 90 percent completeness; a state may have had a birth law, and some records, years before it joined.

What an early birth record shows

Early county birth registers were often lists rather than certificates. The Library of Virginia lists the headings of Virginia's 1853 to 1896 registers: date and place of birth, the child's name if named, race, enslaved status until 1865, sex, whether born alive or dead, the father's name or the enslaver's name, the father's occupation and residence, the mother's name, how many infants at the birth, any deformities or other circumstances of interest, and the informant's name and relation to the child.

Expect gaps. The same guide notes that unnamed babies may appear only as a surname or as infant, that enslaved people were usually recorded with a given name only, and that sometimes only the month of birth was written. A child named weeks later may appear in the register with no first name at all.

Who gave the information

Every birth record depends on its informant. The Library of Congress suggests asking who the informant was, how much time passed between the birth and the record, whether the record was ever amended, and whether every field agrees with your other research. Some birth certificates note how many children the mother had borne, which can reveal children who died young.

A record made by the attending physician or midwife within days is close to the event. A record made a year later from a parent's memory, or by a clerk copying from a tax list, is further removed. Treat each date as only as good as the person who supplied it.

Delayed birth certificates

A delayed birth certificate is a birth record filed long after the birth, usually by the person themselves as an adult. The need grew sharply in the late 1930s and 1940s. The NCHS history explains that new social security and pension plans used the birth certificate as proof of age, and that during World War II workers in defense industries needed proof of citizenship. It estimates that nearly 55 million native-born people living in 1940 had no birth record on file.

States scrambled to handle the requests. In 1941 the Census Bureau issued a manual of uniform procedures for delayed registration, which many states adopted, but rules still varied from state to state. Virginia, for instance, has an index to delayed birth certificates issued from 1912 to 1950; the Library of Virginia notes that some were filed by people born between 1896 and 1911, years when most Virginia localities recorded no births.

To file one, the applicant had to submit documentary evidence that the state registrar, or in some states a local court, accepted as enough. If the certificate or its file lists that evidence, such as a family Bible, a school record, a baptism or a census entry, each item is a clue in its own right. Remember that the certificate was filed decades after the birth, so the date on it is a claim backed by evidence, not a record made at the time.

Births outside marriage

When parents were not married, a birth register may leave the father's name blank. The Library of Congress notes that bastardy cases in criminal court can sometimes be the only record naming a possible father. Look in county court records as well as the birth register, and read terms such as base-born or reputed father as the clerk's wording of the time.