I’ve been working on my family tree off and on for a couple of years. My mom is the eldest with 2 younger brothers and one younger sister. My aunt’s (the youngest of the children) birth certificate states she is the fifth child! It could very easily be a typo, but what would the easiest way to find out if there was another child?
Thanks!
If any are still alive, ask? And if they are all dead, then they were probably around for the 1940 census?
If the missing sibling died shortly after birth, it wouldn’t be recorded in the census.
I would assume this would be the case if there is an apparently missing sibling. The parents might even have concealed this from the other siblings if they were young enough.
If the name is unusual enough or you know the place of birth, you could search birth and death records if they are available. I found out that my grandfather had two older brothers who died as infants in this way. (It also showed why he wasn’t named after his father - the first boy had received that name.) They were never mentioned by the family.
Found something like that: an uncle who died a three weeks. My mother knew of him, but it was before she was born, and she hadn’t known his name.
I found him while looking on familysearch.org. It’s a light (and free) version of ancestry.com.
This is what I think may have happened. All but one of the siblings is alive and well and none of them have heard of another child. My mom is the eldest and still alive (she was born in 1940) and her sister is the youngest and still alive (born in 1951). So if there was another child, I suspect it would have been born before my mom or when she was very young. I think there’s only a couple of years between each of the siblings. My grandma was pregnant with my mom when my grandpa left for overseas during WWII. She was around 2 when he returned and her brother was born within the year. Both of my grandparents have been dead for 20 years or so.
I will try searching for birth and death records, the last name isn’t very common. But like I said, it could very easily been a typo.
Thanks! I will look into this.
My Mom’s family was always counted as seven siblings, but my Mom would mention there was another sister who died at an early age (from measles) somewhere between the oldest siblings (my Mom was in the middle). Since they were all born in the 1920’s / 30’s in rural Maui, Hawaii, early childhood deaths weren’t unusual. I think my Dad had a sibling either stillborn or died at a very early age too. Again, nothing more than a mention in passing, “Oh yeah, there was another brother/sister, but he/she died early”.
Also, my parents mentioned some of their childhood friends passing away young. Again, a different time when childhood diseases like measles were potentially deadly.
I have the 1910 birth certificate of a relative who was the first born. However, the cert indicates a second birth for the mother, even though they were newly married.
The mystery now is: Earlier child born outside marriage? Did said child survive? Or could the certificate be in error?
I agree with above posters: Pull the census. Further info can be found from other documents. Welcome to genealogy.
I’ve looked at numerous censuses and found nothing. I also looked at birth and death records with no luck.
Speaking of babies dying…my paternal grandpa died at the age of 56. I was about 5. My grandma visited his grave every week until she died 30 years later. I spent a lot of time with her and would often go to the cemetery with her. I remember one day she showed me a small, round concrete marker(maybe 3" in diameter) with a number stamped into it. She said her baby was buried there. It was a little girl that was stillborn before my dad was born. It’s always saddened me. It must have been such a common thing in the '30s that there wasn’t much fanfare about the burial. I wonder if there’s even a birth and/or death record of her. I’m going to check it out.