Birth Records Index

Newsprint was expensive to produce in the late 1800s and early 1900s so the amount of information included in birth notices was scant. Many are merely a single sentence such as “A girl was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Doe last Friday.” Sometimes the mother’s maiden name was included. Occasionally the baby’s name was listed. The actual date of the birth was rarely included. Even though the amount of information included is frequently less than we would like, the birth notice can be used to prove the existence of a child–particularly if the child was born after a census and died before the next census was taken.

Newspaper articles were sometimes written about birthdays of local people. The amount of information contained varies widely. For younger persons, a guest list and brief description of the event are frequently found. For older individuals, a brief biography of their life is included.