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From: Thomas McLaughlin <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Clerk's copy -- original vs. derivative
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:17:32 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <300.2231cc0.31616b64@aol.com>


In Ohio, the original is actually the form completed
and signed by the physician or other birthing
attendent, at least for births. The physician or other
individual that had the legal authority to "pronounce
a death" would be the one to have signed the death
certificate. That copy, or a reproduction of that
copy, is filed at both the local and the state levels,
and at some point may be filmed, archived, or
distroyed. original delayed birth certificates are
completed and signed by a court official. Original
marriage records are signed by the official that
witnessed the vows. I would assume that the second
criteria for "Original" is that the record is filed at
a legitimate location by the witness. I suspect that
those two elements, the signature and the filing have
to be present for the record to be "original".

In the past, ledgers were also maintained at the local
level with the information abstracted from the
original; now those files may be computerized. The
computer generated records are not original and should
be checked against the originals (I know that the ones
at our health department computerized records were not
individually verified as accurate, and, when issuing
copies of those records, they should be checking them
against the official records. The data entry personnel
were not necessarily known for their excellance in
typing skills. and they did not proof read their
work.)

Older records for births were less likely have been
filed at an official location; it was not until there
were valid social reasons that these records were kept
for governmental purposes. The need for proof of age
for the draft, drivers liscense, probate, etc., led to
wide spread use of these licenses.

There is some overlap of orginals, ledgers, and
computerized records in some, if not most,
localitites.

At least in Ohio, some early births (early meaning
those of the early 1900's) were registered only in the
county, and not filed at the state level. The local
jurisdiction is not supposed to issue local copies of
those that were not filed at the state level. In our
county, the old ledgers were coded, while I can not
rember the codes off-hand, state officials came
through and audited the records, and drew lines
through some entries marking those records as not
legal as they had not been registered at the state
level.

Some entries were in red ink, and I have recorded
somewhere what those so coded mean. Perhaps they were
the delayed birth records. One must keep in mind that
some of the delayed birth recordds, in the older
records, may even have been of births from out of the
state.

I learned this information and recorded it during my
last two weeks of work before retiring from the health
department. My husband's aunt was the registrar during
the years when ledgers were kept. And the one that was
born outside of Ohio was her cousin, born in
Pennsylvania. Some day, I will publish the notes I
took at that time.

Older records, before vital statists were mandated,
may be found in original church books maintained be
the ministers. In New York, the minister often
recorded both the birth and baptisms in the church
records. The baptismal records would more likely be
original, but the minister certainly did not witness
the birth, so, I assume, those would not be consided
original. The mother or birthing assistant could/would
be considered to have been the witness, but when, in
history, would the birthing assistant have been
privileged to have the authority to officially witness
the fact of birth? And, did the parents cheat a little
on the date of birth of the first child? Who knows!

Kathleen McLaughlin
Wood County, Ohio

--- wrote:

> Back in February there was a thread on the list
> about compiling a
> biblography. I had surgery back in January and am
> really just getting my act together.
> I printed out many posts to review later. I have a
> simple question based on a
> discussion between Donn and Craig about how to
> divide a bibliography.
> Somewhere in this thread I became confused. Is the
> entry in the volume at the
> courthouse of a vital record considered an original
> or derivative source of
> primary information? It seems to me that the written
> license or record that is
> given to the patron is the original (if one was
> given) and the clerk's entry, a
> derivative. However, that would catagorize so many
> courthouse records as
> derivative. I would appreciate some clarification on
> this point from my fellow
> APGers.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Rondina P. Muncy
> Grapevine, Texas
>
>
>
>
> ==== APG Mailing List ====
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>


Kathleen McLaughlin

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