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From: Rick Van Dusen <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Conclusions
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:16:57 -0800
References: <C9561A86.2EDB6%GeneJinSL@gmail.com> <4D30CFD4.70902@gmail.com><000a01cbb447$6e8c7e90$4ba57bb0$@com>
In-Reply-To: <000a01cbb447$6e8c7e90$4ba57bb0$@com>


My specific reference was to a report from a living "witness" vs. the
documentation, which would assume these to be "modern-day" and I would
not disagree with your statement about the "probability of accuracy" of
a document. The "ancient" documents are not an issue, because I'm not
faced with church baptism records vs. what my 4g-g-father personally
told me. (For most of my Van Deusen ancestors, I have no birthdate at
all, only a baptism date and the knowledge that the Dutch Reformed
practiced infant baptism.)

However, I wasn't claiming infallibility for even the modern document.
Even though I'd tend to put more credence on the document than on a
verbal account, I still wouldn't "trust" it. I'd only go as far as
probably making its information the primary tag of its kind (but that
would be decided on a case-by-case basis, anyway).

As you say, a birth certificate is usually filled out by the attending
physician and supposedly reviewed by the parents. But the doctor may be
tired, blasé, or have misunderstood something, or just flat made a
mistake, and the parents may "read it over" the same way they read over
car finance agreements.

And even today, there are other factors. It took almost a month to get
my son's birth cert. officially created, and then only after a Public
Health nurse came and examined him to make sure we had an actual child
(and I suppose, to see if he mostly looked like us--good thing he didn't
get the genes of his #2 sister, who got all my g-grandfather's Spanish
features and looks more a part of her Mexican friend's family than
ours). (All this red tape stuff happened even though our pediatrician
had seen him the day of his birth and had known his mother to be
pregnant. He might otherwise be a "non-person".)



Teresa Elliott wrote:
> Rick, yes, but most birth certificates now are created by the doctor on the
> morning the child is born. BOTH parents are supposed to read the certificate
> and sign the information was correct. That has not always been the case.
> In many rural areas, birth certificates were filled out after a child was
> born, sometimes months later when the child finally saw a doctor. The
> doctor recorded the name and birth date in a book and recorded the
> certificates all at once. (I have seen ones dated all on the same day of the
> month for the month prior.) The mother and father aren't even recorded a
> lot of the time and if they are I have seen things like Mrs. Jones as
> mother.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [mailto:] On Behalf
> Of Rick Van Dusen
> Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 4:36 PM
> To:
> Subject: Re: [TMG] Conclusions
>
> I have no doubt. As I said, I'm the dad, not the mom, yet I can tell you
> birth date, time, place, and weight and length of each of my four kids.
>
> Still, I wouldn't expect you or Teresa to "believe" me, especially over
> legal documents (even though my name is on those documents--as
> "Attending Physician" for my fourth).

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