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From: "Nancy Coleman" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Baptismal Date vs. Birth Date, New Orleans, LA
Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 23:16:01 -0500
References: <20040110194044.22799.qmail@web13421.mail.yahoo.com>


Thanks Ray, I though (after working for two days on this and going blind) that I was going crazy. Not only have not many dates matched up (month-wise) but I, today, discovered one sister pair who seem to have traded names as teenagers. Their civil birth records are completely opposite from all other records of them as adults. Pauline did not like her name so she changes it to her sisters, who is Josephine. Josephine doesn't like her name so she changes it to Pauline. Everything else, ironically, matches up. Including New Orleans death records, marriage records, censuses (ages and order for many decades including those with their spouses; both died very old so it meant chasing them down through about 7 or 8 censuses each) and the SSDI.
I've run across these teenage name changes quite often (Mary, Polly, Delia, Adelia, Bedelia, Maria, etc.) but this complete switch between siblings was a new one for me! It kept me going for hours... Ironically, those were two of the ones that DID agree with their civil birth records in the very end (death record or SSDI). Two that agreed out of dozens but they still sent me for a loop!

I'm still wondering though if there is some cultural thing in Louisiana that accounts for this. We all know the Irish were not big on details like birthdays but this family has much older Spanish and French influence as well and intermarried with other old New Orleans families of various ethnicities. I can understand the Irish part, but I was under the impression that the French and Spanish (cultural) influence in those parts was very good with record keeping going way back. Is this a misguided impression?
Best regards. Nancy.
Nancy Coleman

http://www.genealogyPro.com/ncoleman.html

----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Beere Johnson II
To:
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2004 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: [APG] Baptismal Date vs. Birth Date, New Orleans, LA


Nancy;
I had to deal with a family like this; my
wife's. Read on for details.
> Hope to get some clear advice... This may be
> an obvious and stupid question, but here goes.

Neither obvious nor stupid from where I stand; I
still don't have any explanation for the way one
particular family behaved. There were a few
similarities to your family.

> with censuses, I have found a pattern of
> discrepancies. I have civil birth records with
> one date of birth and then further records
> (1900 census for instance) where the year may
> be the same (or not) but the month is
> completely different. The family(ies) involved
> are Catholic and of a mix of Irish, Spanish,
> and French heritage.
>
> I can understand the year being off, that's not
> unusual if they lied about their age. I find
> that all the time in NYC records. But, why
> would they change the month of birth? Was it

The family I was concerned with was
Catholic, and was French-Canadian, Irish, and
Native American. From at least 1880 through the
1920s, few records for this family agreed on
anything! I have never personally worked on
another family like it. I personally checked the
original birth records, and noted the dates
given. These were NOT the same dates the family
celebrated as their birthdays, according to the
one family member still living. He was dying of
cancer, and not able to provide an explanation of
why this was so. The dates listed by the Social
Security Administration for births of ALL
deceased members of this family did not match the
dates in the original birth records. I don't
think the dates matched those of baptism in the
Catholic Church either, although I didn't check
this out thoroughly so cannot say for certain.
What I did note in this family was a disregard
for details, and a lack of concern with official
records. First names were "loose" also (Beatrice
was called "Bernice", Frances was called
"Francine", etc.). I assumed they just didn't
care about the details, but can't prove that
assumption, obviously.
I can readily understand why the problem
drives you crazy. I still cannot locate the death
of one family member with a common name, as I
have no idea what date of birth to look under in
the SSDI; someday I will have to check out each
of about a hundred and fifty possible matches...
Ray


=====
Ray Beere Johnson II - Genealogist
279 East Central Street, Suite 259
P. O. Box 95
Franklin, Massachusetts 02038


FAX: 508-541-6788

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