LAORLEAN-L Archives

From: Gene Hullinghorst <>
Subject: Re: Birth certificates
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 18:49:12 -0500

> Subject: [LAORLEAN-L] Twin Birth Mystery
> Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 19:47:21 EST
> From:
> To:
>
> Hi, Me Again I am more confused than ever on my family research.
> A while back, I wrote the State of La. to get a copy of my grandfather ( Rene
> J. Borel) birth certificate. I gave them the date of birth that was on his
> death certificate-July 7,1885. They mailed me a birth certificate that stated
> that on November 22, 1885 twins were born one male one female ( Rene Jean &
> Marie Felicite) you may remember from my earlier postings, that I was a
> little confused at the twins name because in my grandfathers obituary, It
> states he had 2 sisters one named Marie & one named Felcecea. Well Now my I
> got a chance to get to talk to my Aunt about her dad ( My grandfather)
> possibly being a twin. She did not think that the birth certificate that the
> State sent me was his birth certificate. She thought that it must have been
> of the stillborn twins that she had heard of in her past( Although, she did
> think that the mother died during this child birth as well)- which would not
> be possible because she had 3 other children after this year. My questions
> are as follows:
> 1.) If I gave the State an exact date of birth, would not they look in that
> day 1st. then do they search the rest of the year? ( I am wondering if my
> aunt is correct, where my grandfathers birth certificate is.
> 2.) If tewins were born " stillborn" would they have a birth certificate? &
> should they have a death certificate?
> 3.) Also ( remember I sent the state the 7/7/1885 DOB on my grandfather...
> well I have another DOB as 9/7/1885 from the Social Security application.
> should I write the state with this date to try to get a birth certificate for
> him.
>
> I really feel that I have the right birth certificate maybe my Aunt is a
> little confused ( I know I am lol) I mean is it possible when you do the
> math... Stillborn twins Nov1885 does not make sense since the DOB's on the
> other 2 documents are 7/7/1885 & 9/7/1885.... there is no way the mother
> could have had the two pregnancies in that short of time.
>
> Please give me some advise.( sorry if i wrote to much!)
> Barbara M. Borel
>
I have 2 birth certificates for 2 different children which were
obviously not born in as close proximity as it is recorded. What seemed
to cause the problem was that the 2 births, although not at the same
time were reported for the certificates together. So even though the
attestor may have accurate info, the person making out the cetificate
may get confused. I cross checked the certificates with the ages of
these children listed on the census data. So I deduced which was older.
I decided the younger child's certificate was accurate and the older one
was not. So I'm still missing an exact date of birth but at leeast I
have a good approximation of the year. The moral: take all the records
with a grain of salt and keep checking other sources so you can come up
with a logical answer. Also, accept the use of "est." and "about" as the
best you can do. This is a mix of art and science.

Gene H.

This thread:

• Re: Birth certificates by Gene Hullinghorst <>