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From:
Subject: Re: [PAPHILA] Maiden name marriage
Date: Thu, 9 Aug 2001 22:36:55 EDT

Rich--
You win! Your's is worse than mine.

In fact, I was looking through some birth and death indexes today and
wondering about a couple of things. First, if a woman gave birth at home
without a midwife or doctor in attendance, who reported it? Maybe it wasn't
reported, which would answer the question of why we can't find some birth
records. Second, when a person died and was buried by whatever undertaker in
whatever cemetery, isn't it possible, considering the frequency of errors in
civil records, that a death return was not filed or that there were name
errors just like in the censuses? This would tell us why we can't find some
death records.

Now, here are 3 more problems:
1. Name changes. My uncle suddenly became Al Freedman instead of Abraham
Winepol. How in the world would I have been able to trace him if I didn't
know this. His grandaughter became Nicole instead of Gail. And this was in
this century.
2. There is no requirement whatsoever to tell the truth, plus you can say
whatever you want on the census or in civil records. Call your girlfriend
your wife. Use nicknames. Use middle names. Or, the neighbor gives the info
and it's wrong.
3. Since we usually know very little about actual lives except the vital
records we can find, who knows if these people were hiding anything.

In short--OY!

Good luck in your search.
Merle

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  • [PAPHILA] Maiden Name Marriage by Rich Nichols <>