On this date in 1895, my husband's great-grandfather, Anthony A. Schroeder was born in Shelby County, Ohio. At least, I'm pretty sure he was born on February 14th. It is listed on as his date of birth on his death certificate and both his WWI and WWII draft registration cards. What makes me wonder is this probate birth record from Shelby County. (The red arrows point to Anthony's name and to his parents' names. Click on image for larger view.)
Probate Birth Record for Anthony Schroeder
This birth record lists his date of birth as March 2, 1895. It is definitely the correct Anthony Schroeder - both parent names are correct, as is the location. Nineteenth century probate birth and death records are often very interesting and, sometimes, not always that accurate. If you look at the far left side of the record, you will find the date on which the birth was reported, in this case May 14, 1895 - at least a couple of months after Anthony's birth. Then, if you look to the far right of the record, you will find the name of the person who reported the birth, in this case, W. H. Pellman, Assessor. Very often, the birth was NOT reported by a parent or even a relative, and sometimes it took several months for the birth to be officially recorded. So, the date could possibly be due to an assessor error. (Anthony was his parents' fourth child, so there isn't any possibility that the 'official' date would have been moved back, which did sometimes happen with first-born children if the parents' had not been married long enough, if you know what I mean.)
The way to get to the bottom of this would be for me to find his baptismal record, if it exists. Babies at this time were usually baptized within a week of birth, so that would surely confirm whether or not the February or the March birth date is truly correct. Unfortunately, the archives for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are currently closed, so there is little chance of me finding that record any time soon.
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
The way to get to the bottom of this would be for me to find his baptismal record, if it exists. Babies at this time were usually baptized within a week of birth, so that would surely confirm whether or not the February or the March birth date is truly correct. Unfortunately, the archives for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are currently closed, so there is little chance of me finding that record any time soon.
©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder
