When I first started my research, I thought to myself, oh I have her birth certificate that she used during her lifetime…. that’s good enough. I could not have been more wrong.
I realized I never pulled my great grandmother’s state birth record or her younger brother’s at the NJ State Archives. Her family had moved from Brooklyn to New Jersey after her sister Gert was born in 1904. Cenie was the first child born in New Jersey in 1906 and her brother Billy was the youngest born in 1912. A trip to the archives later uncovered that her state birth certificate had more information than the city version.
The ages of her parents and occupations were listed. Number of children all by this marriage = 7. Number of children now living 5. I knew she had two sisters that passed before she was born. They are buried in the family plot in Brooklyn. I also pulled her younger brother, Billy’s, state birth certificate to compare and I’m really glad I did.
His birth certificate said: number of children in all by this marriage = 9. Number of children now living = 6. I had no idea there was another child that passed after Cenie’s birth. I’ve scoured the archives birth and death records for the years between the children and have come to the conclusion that it was most likely a still birth sometime between 1908-1910. These records have yet to be microfilmed in NJ. I am still searching.
Check for additional sources of the same record. You may find a missing clue or two.
