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From: "Kris Beisser Matthies, N.E.W. Research Services" <>
Subject: RE: [APG] Baptismal Date vs. Birth Date, New Orleans, LA
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 16:10:24 -0600
In-Reply-To: <20040110194044.22799.qmail@web13421.mail.yahoo.com>


Nancy,
I have no experience with New Orleans records so don't know if what
happened here in Northeastern Wisconsin would apply there or not. However,
I have learned over many years of using both the local Catholic sacramental
record registers and the civil records that a huge portion of our pre-1907
vital records were copied out of the church record books. In some
cases the priest or whoever copied over the records was very sloppy about
doing it and would use the date of the baptism instead of the actual date of
birth. So many of our birth records are actually giving the date of baptism
as the official date of birth. One priest in particular even did this with
deaths. We have many death records that incorrectly give the date of death
as the date the funeral was held. It can really make it hard to find an
obituary when you are using the date of the funeral instead of the death.
Most people don't look for obituaries on a person before the person is said
to have died!
In addition the sacramental records of baptisms and funerals do not
always give both dates. Sometimes only the date of the baptism or the date
of the funeral is given. This is especially a problem when you do not know
which date the priest is using. Is he recording the date the person died or
the date that he had their funeral. Often you can not tell based on just the
sacramental record.
Kris Beisser Matthies, CGRS



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