A Genealogy Goldmine in Delayed Birth Certificates

While not always reliable for the birth event, delayed birth certificates can be extremely helpful. In this video, I'll show you some examples of just how helpful they can be.

But first, I want to point out that these certificates can be filed in their own record set, or they can be intermingled with the original birth certificates in birth date order. Also, if you happen to have a birth certificate filed at the time of the birth, you might still find a delayed registration. This could happen for a few reasons, namely because the original could not be located (I've noticed this is the case when no given name is provided on the original birth certificate).

One more thing. Not all delayed birth certificates are created equal. Some were created on a specific form with “delayed” in the title, while others were recorded on the regular birth certificate form of the time. Also, documentation and/or affidavits were required at the time of the delayed registration, and sometimes you can find these additional goodies. State statutes dictate the “rules” for delayed registrations, as well as the acceptable documentation. Delayed registrations could be filed for various reasons, but the biggest boon was probably in the late 1930s through the 1950s, when individuals needed a birth certificate in order to claim Social Security benefits.

So now that we've got all that out of the way, how on earth can these be helpful? Check out the video to see how.

Investigate whether delayed birth certificates might be available in the places where your ancestors were born. Find anything? Share your discoveries on the discussion of this post on Facebook.

© Julie Tarr. This article was first published at Genealogy In Action; appearance of this article elsewhere, without my permission, violates copyright.