I know you are looking at this title and thinking, "How does someone not have a birth certificate or access to one these days?" And you would be right to think that. But back in 1884/1885 when my 2nd Great-Grandma, Oma Mae Dennis was born, they didn't issue certificates like today. You were lucky to have any proof of when you were born. So if you don't have a birth certificate, how do you apply for a Social Security Number to receive benefits? That was the question I asked myself and my trusted Genealogy Facebook group GAA (Genealogy Addicts Anonymous). With everyone's help and my own research, we came up with some answers. Let's get into it.
History of Birth Certificates
First, let's start with some history about Birth Certificates. Would you believe that the recording of births was not standardized until around the 1930s? Before then, it was up to the local counties and churches to keep their own records. And their records were only as good as the people providing the information. You see, most births occurred at home with a midwife (or doctor sometimes) present. Only if a child was baptized in the church would it be recorded. If, by chance, the doctor was present, he would record this information in his notes and give it to the county. Otherwise, it was still up to the family to report the birth to the county.
As you can see, there would be plenty of chances for a birth to not be recorded. The only other way to know a child had been born to the family was through Census records. The government began conducting censuses of the population in 1790, but the information was not very detailed until the 1850 census. Even so, it wasn't until 1902 that Congress enacted a legislative bill for the Census Bureau to have a permanent office within the Department of the Interior. This is when the recording of Vital Statistics would start to become more standardized.
Accordingly, in 1902, when the U.S. Bureau of the Census was made a permanent agency of the federal government, the legislation authorized the director of the Bureau to obtain, annually, copies of records filed in the vital statistics offices of those states and cities having adequate death registration systems and to publish data from these records. A few years earlier, the Bureau had issued a recommended death reporting form (the first “U.S. Standard Certificate of Death”) and requested each independent registration area to adopt it as of January 1, 1900. Those areas that adopted the form and whose death registration was 90 percent com plete were to be included in a national death-registration area that had been established in 1880. In 1915 the national birth-registration area was established, and by 1933 all states were registering live births and deaths with acceptable event coverage and providing the required data to the Bureau for the production of national birth and death statistics. - National Library of Medicine 1
Since many wouldn't have had birth certificates when the Social Security Administration went into effect, I knew there had to be some information provided to the public telling them what they needed to do. I came across an article published by Good Housekeeping in September 1942. Many soldiers were having trouble registering for the military in World War II because they didn't have proof of their birth in the United States. So Good Housekeeping wrote an article on the importance of having a Birth Certificate and how to get one.
No Birth Certificate: Now what?
My 2nd Great-Grandma, Oma Mae Dennis was not issued a birth certificate in 1884/1885. So that was an issue. So I began to look at other options for proof of birth for her.
Birth Registers - If you were lucky, your ancestors lived in or near a big city. This would give you more of a chance to find a register of births. For the city of St. Louis, Ancestry.com has birth registers going back to the 1850s. Below is a birth register for my Great-Grandpa Joseph Ilg. He was born in 1899 in St. Louis, Missouri.
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Missouri, US, Birth Registers
St. Louis, Missouri
Ilg, John (Joseph)
Ancestry.com |
Church Registers - Another option was locating the church the family attended. Odds are you will find a baptismal register if the church conducted baptisms. Below is a baptismal register for the same Great-Grandpa above, Joseph Ilg. The family attended St. Boniface Church in Carondelet, Missouri. This register was not on Ancestor nor was it with the church. The copies were held at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters. Not all registers will have a birth date listed, but this one register had a column for birth dates.
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St. Boniface Church
Baptismal Register
St. Louis County Library Headquarters |
Family Bibles - During my years of research, I learned that Bibles were considered a primary source of birth, marriage, and death information. The majority of the time this was the only record that proved when an ancestor was born. This was foreign to me as my family did not keep records that way. My mom and my grandma kept little date books. While going through boxes, I was fortunate to locate a datebook belonging to my 2nd Great-Grandma, Pauline Ilg. She kept records of all her children's births and deaths, plus marriage and immigration information. Below are images of a family bible from the Wheeler Family and Grandma Pauline Ilg's datebook.
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Wheeler Family Bible
Births
Originals Held by Kyle Smith (Cousin)
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Family Date Book
Ruth Wheeler Collection |
Delayed Birth Certificate - I first learned Bibles could be used as a primary source when I located a Delayed Birth Certificate for my Great-Grandpa James B. Wheeler. When the registration of births started to become more standard and it was more necessary to show proof of birth, the Delayed Filing Registration came about. This was especially the case when the Social Security Administration began requiring proof of birth in the United States before they would issue a Social Security Number and offer benefits. Below is the Delayed Birth Certificate for Great-Grandpa James B. Wheeler. Notice the evidence supplied to prove his date and location of birth.
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Tennessee, US Delayed Birth Records, 1869-1909
Birth Certificates, April 1878
James Benjamin Francis Wheeler
Ancestry.com |
Once I learned about Delayed Birth Certificates, I assumed that was what my 2nd Great-Grandma, Oma Mae Dennis, used to obtain a Social Security Number. This was the #1 suggestion from the members of the GAA Facebook group. I poured over all the Delayed Birth Certificates issued in Tennessee the year she was born with no luck. I even checked years before and after just in case the year was recorded wrong. There were some discrepancies about her birth that I won't get into right now, but unfortunately, this didn't clear them up.
No Delayed Birth Certificate: Strike two!
So my question was, "How was she able to get a Social Security Number?" This is what I posted in the Facebook group. Among the people who commented were some past employees of the Social Security Administration. They provided excellent information regarding what they were allowed to accept as proof of birth.
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| Comment from member of GAA |
I also checked Newspapers.com for any articles about applying for Social Security Benefits. To my surprise, there were a few articles. They provided details on how to apply for benefits and what forms of identification they would accept.
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The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune
(Chillicothe, Missouri)
9 Aug 1965, Mon · Page 7
Newspapers.com |
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The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune
(Chillicothe, Missouri)
9 Aug 1965, Mon · Page 7
Newspapers.com
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So What Did She Use??
I was hoping when I sent off to get her original application from the Social Security Administration, it would provide the forms of identification she used to get a Social Security Number and collect benefits but it did not. It makes me question what she actually used because the birth information listed on the application, the one SHE filled out, was wrong. Granted, the documents and sources I collected are a little sketchy. Her death certificate had a birth date of January 11, 1884. The original court records of her adoption (yes, she was adopted) state her birth date being January 11, 1885. Then the Social Security Application has her birth date as January 11, 1889.
According to the newspaper articles, Oma could have used her marriage records and/or divorce records to prove her age. That would be the only thing to my knowledge that should have had in her possession unless they got access to census records, which is also possible. So to be frank, I have no clue what she used, but whatever the case, she did get a Social Security number and collected benefits.
Do you have an interesting story about getting a Social Security number? I've surely read a few thanks to the GAA Facebook group. Share yours in the comments. Also if you have any questions about this topic, post them in the comments as well. I hope you learned something new after reading this. If you did, let me know.
I'll end this post with a funny article I came across while researching this topic. Apparently, more women were not honest about their ages than I originally thought. So much so, that an article was published about it when it came to collecting social security.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(St. Louis, Missouri)
26 Mar 1950, Sun · Page 1
Newspapers.com |
Sources:
1: National Research Council (US) Committee on National Statistics. Vital Statistics: Summary of a Workshop. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009. B, The U.S. Vital Statistics System: A National Perspective. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219884/
2: United States Census Bureau, History: Census History Staff, Revised December 14, 2003 ("https://www.census.gov/history/www/reference/legislation/legislation_1902_-_1941.html": accessed 15 May 2024)
3: United States Census Bureau, Agency History ("https://www.census.gov/history/www/census_then_now/": accessed 15 May 2024)
4: US Birth Certificates, The History of Birth Certificates: US Birth Certificates Team ("https://www.usbirthcertificates.com/articles/history-birth-certificates" accessed 15 May 2024
5: Brumberg HL, Dozor D, Golombek SG. History of the birth certificate: from inception to the future of electronic data. J Perinatol. 2012 Jun;32(6):407-11. doi: 10.1038/jp.2012.3. Epub 2012 Feb 2. PMID: 22301527.
6: John Waggoner. Key Moments in the History of Social Security, AARP, 11 Apr 2023 ("https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/info-2020/social-security-history-timeline.html" accessed 15 May 2024)
7: Good Housekeeping. Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History. Hearst Corp, New York. Digital Copies held by Cornell University, Digital Collections, https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/hearth6417403
