{"id":6478,"date":"2017-08-15T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T21:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/?p=6478"},"modified":"2018-06-17T13:21:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T17:21:39","slug":"you-never-know-what-youll-find-if-you-look-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/you-never-know-what-youll-find-if-you-look-again\/","title":{"rendered":"You Never Know What You’ll Find If You Look Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have learned this lesson more than once, and can still be surprised when I look again for a record I don\u2019t have and \u2013 to my delight! \u2013 I discover what I have been doggedly searching for is now found.\u00a0 The last time I made a focused search for my grandfather Lyle\u2019s birth record was probably two years ago.\u00a0 When Judy and I went to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in September 2015 I searched (before online and again while there looking at microfilms) for Lyle’s record with no success.<\/p>\n

It just happened to me again, although truth be told I wasn\u2019t even actually looking for the record.\u00a0 I was adding some of my Denman family to the tree on Family Search for an English cousin to be able to see.\u00a0 When I added my grandfather, Lyle Minor Denman, the rest of the tree was already there and I was connected to it.\u00a0 As I looked at my grandfather and then his father\u2019s information on this tree, I saw that my great grandfather, F.A. Denman, was listed on a record for Lyle\u2019s birth.\u00a0 (I had focused on F.A. because he has been listed on the tree as Frank A. or F.A. and the Frank always bothers me because I never heard that as a name for him.)<\/p>\n

Seeing this listing of F.A.\u2019s son\u2019s birth, I looked on familysearch.org for the birth records, using the full name of Lyle Minor Denman (not sure this made any difference).\u00a0 It turns out that the collection of records and images (presumably including the indexing) was only updated in October, 2016, so a full year after I was there and after my searching.<\/p>\n

What I discovered was that Lyle had applied to have his birth registered as a delayed registration, in 1942 although he was born in 1896, making him 46 years old at the time.\u00a0 His older sister Helen whose birth is also nowhere to be found did not apparently ever apply for a delayed registration.\u00a0 This makes some sense as she died in 1926 at age 31, so likely never had a need.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are actually two different\"\"<\/a> records, both of which now have images available, that show Lyle applied for and was granted the delayed birth registration, as of March 11, 1942.\u00a0 Grandpa Lyle had to be examined in open court as to the facts, which were found to be supported by the affidavits of two credible witnesses.\u00a0 With this done, his birth was duly ordered to be registered.\u00a0 The information was sent to the Ohio Department of Health.<\/p>\n

Aside from now having evidence of Lyle\u2019s birth, the first thing of interest to me on these images was who the witnesses were.\u00a0 One was indeed Lyle\u2019s father F.A. Denman and the other was his aunt Nellie Minor Shelton (Lyle\u2019s mother\u2019s sister).\u00a0 Since I\u2019m pretty certain that F.A. Denman was present in the house for his birth (if not the room, and I don\u2019t know about that), this seems like usable primary evidence.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether Nellie was present for the birth, but she was living nearby.<\/p>\n

I am amused to see that both witnesses\u2019 affidavits were notarized by one Doris Graves who just happened to be the younger daughter of F.A. Denman and thus also the niece of Nellie Shelton.\u00a0 They were all living in Wakeman, Ohio so that was certainly convenient.<\/p>\n

What remains to try to discover is just why Lyle went to the trouble of registering his birth at this time.\u00a0 The first idea that comes to me is that the required \u201cOld Man\u2019s\u201d or Fourth Registration for the Selective Service for World War II happened in April of 1942.\u00a0 Would Lyle have needed to be sure his birth was registered in order to prove his age for that registration?\u00a0\u00a0 He apparently didn\u2019t need to for the first World War which he registered for and then served in the Army for briefly.<\/p>\n

The other thought I have had is that he was preparing to apply for a Social Security number (which went into effect in 1936 but he might not have been covered until later; depending on his employer and what his job was there were many exclusions).\u00a0 The Social Security Death Index notes he applied in Ohio before 1951, so it seems that if I want to find out I will need to request his application (SS-5).\u00a0 I\u2019ll think about it.\u00a0 In the meantime, my itch to have evidence for his birth has been satisfied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have learned this lesson more than once, and can still be surprised when I look again for a record I don\u2019t have and \u2013 to my delight! \u2013 I discover what I have been doggedly searching for is now …<\/p>\n

You Never Know What You’ll Find If You Look Again!<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[372,18,130],"class_list":["post-6478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-birth-record","tag-denman-family","tag-ohio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6478"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6836,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6478\/revisions\/6836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/genealogygals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}