Week 17: Document (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

"Document" can be a noun or a verb and, as genealogists, we should be using it as both! Perhaps this week you share a neat document you've found or write about your efforts to document an ancestor. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022

Genealogist are always gathering documents to prove relationships and facts. When I was preparing to join the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), I was just gathering documents to prove facts that I thought I already knew.

I needed birth, marriage and death records for my parents and my maternal grandparents. I went to the courthouse where my mother’s birth certificate is filed along with her parent’s marriage record. My mother was born in 1927 and her parents were married in 1926. I happily went to the courthouse and used the birth index book first. For those of you who don’t know, the birth index book is a large book with the name of the person being born, their birth date and the volume and page number that the birth certificate can be found. Births are recorded by last name and in order of being recorded. I noticed that my mother’s name was listed as Hilts, her mother’s maiden name. Then it was crossed off and Hafenstein was written along with the year 1945. This was not the normal markings one would find in the birth index. 

As I was turning the pages of the volume that contained my mother’s birth certificate, there was nothing unusual about the pages. They were typed pages until I reached my mother’s. It looked like a microfilm printed page; it was black with white lettering. 

On the left side of the page was a 1945 written date, this was the same year as the Indexed book. The rest of the information looked normal, her parents are listed, her date of birth, doctor signatures and more.

I then proceeded to the Marriage index to find my grandparent’s marriage record. The marriage index is a little different, it is an index based on marriage date. They are recorded as they issue certificates, thus I went to May 1926 and found no marriage record for my grandparents. I keep looking through the remainder of the year, into 1927, and then 1928 and finally in 1929 I found the listing. Now I am questioning who is the father of my mother. My mother is a spitting image of my grandmother, so I have no doubts that she is her mother. 

I gather my documents and proceed home. I submit my application to DAR and they reject it, stating that it appears that my mother was adopted, since she was born before my grandparent’s wedding. Since I was going through my maternal grandmother’s line, I just needed to prove that her mother was indeed her biological mother.

I decided to send an inquiry email to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to find out if my mother was adopted in 1945 by her step-father. I stated that I am pretty sure that her mother was her biological mother. 

They were nice enough to confirm that my mother’s step-father did adopt her and sent me a form to request her non-identifying adoption paperwork. I did send for the paperwork, which confirmed that my mother was adopted after her 18th birthday. My mother was going to go to college and her step-father didn't want her to bear the shame of showing an illegitimate birth certificate the rest of her life. Up until that day, my mother didn't know that her father wasn't her biological father.  

At this point, my curiosity was sparked. I then contacted the local catholic dioceses for my mother’s baptism record. Unfortunately, the record appears it never had her birth father’s name on it and it was modified to include her step-father’s name.

The moral of this cautionary tale, is that not all documents are accurate. Even though the birth certificate I obtained is a legal document, it is not necessarily an accurate document because when my mother was adopted a new birth certificate was created. Whether or not her original certificate ever contained her biological father’s name, I don’t know. Also, her baptism record contains accurate information but also inaccurate since it also appears to not have her biological father listed on it.

This was my driving force to use DNA in my genealogy endeavors. I am pretty confident that I found out who my biological grandfather is. One of his daughter’s did finally show up as my half-aunt on one of the testing sites. It was his only surviving child. 

So keep looking for those documents and Just Do Genealogy!