Massachusetts birth record query

[garibaldired]

Taking advantage of ancestry's free access to its New England records this weekend I found a marriage entry for Robert Duncan Brown and Hannah Hunter in Worcester, Mass. It was for 12 March 1904 he was 37 and a travelling salesman born Canada, she 24 a dressmaker from Waterbury Connecticut. His parents Duncan Brown & Mary McArthur, hers James Hunter & Margaret Henderson (everything else fits but her mother was actually Marion Paterson Dobbie so I could be on the wrong track here!).

However the real puzzle comes with 2 birth entries both for 25 June 1904.
One in Boston is for Marion Elisabeth Brown father Robert D Brown mason born Montreal Canada, mother Hannah P Hunter born, Waterbury Ct., usual residence 128 Chandler St., Boston.
The other in Malden for Marion Brown father Robert D Brown mason born Canada, mother Addie J Steele, born Boston, residence Malden.

Any suggestions?

Meg

[SarahND]

Meg, you've come up with another good one! Traveling salesman indeed... Never a dull moment with your Dobbies!

The Malden one does say that the birth occurred in Boston-- I can only think there must have been a mixup with entering the birth in the town records in Malden. Have you found them in later censuses?

All the best,
Sarah

[SarahND]

Just to confuse things a bit, in 1920 there is a household in Waterbury, Connecticut consisting of James Hunter age 53 born Scotland, a machinist; his sister Marion Hunter age 40 born Connecticut; and Niece Marion Hunter age 14 born Massachusetts, father born Canada, mother born Connecticut. All of them listed as single.

Is this the family?

Best wishes,
Sarah

Later: Of course it is the family-- silly me. I just looked back in a folder of images saved in 2006 and saw the Hunters amongst the Dobbies. Just goes to show that you never know when you're going to suddenly need to look at those old searches again!

[garibaldired]

=D> You're right of course, Sarah.

So do you think it's the same baby registered in both places? I know that, according to both entries, the baby was born in Boston but the parents give their place of residence as Boston and Malden respectively!
If there are 2 babies here he's given them the same name (though funnily enough I have that very same thing happening in the English side of my family!!).

I'm not a member of ancestry so haven't been able to check censuses in Massachusetts, though a search for Addie J Steele on that site isn't very informative.
Best wishes,
Meg

[killearnan]

Meg, you've come up with another good one! Traveling salesman indeed... Never a dull moment with your Dobbies!

The Malden one does say that the birth occurred in Boston-- I can only think there must have been a mixup with entering the birth in the town records in Malden. Have you found them in later censuses?

In addition to the increased possibility of error when Boston copied records to send to Malden, there's also this ~ in most cases, the records that have been digitized and put on-line are copies of the town records that were sent to the commonwealth's state (yeah, that what it's called on my 1960s birth certificate....) department of health. The way it was supposed to work, at the end of each year, towns in Massachusetts would copy their vital records for the the year and send them to the state offices in Boston for safekeeping/statistics-gathering/etc.

For ease of getting the job done, those state copies of the records are the records that are usually used in digitizing. Some towns evidently made two copies at the time of registration, while others copied everything over at the end of the year, depending on the clerk's habits/preferences ~ I've heard of both from people who dealt with this pre-Xerox machines.

Nice to have the state-wide records that are all in one place ~ as the digitizing likely happened much earlier than it would have if Ancestry/etc. had needed to get permission from and then go to each town to do the work ~ but it adds a good-sized chance of error while copying

I've found a couple cases where there is either an error in the state copy that there isn't in the town copy ~ or where the town copy has a record but the state copy missed it altogether (but these took trips to town offices to find......).

BJ

[SarahND]

Okay, this is fun, but not particularly relevant… but I have to tell you anyway. Sorry Meg

In the 1912 directory of Webster, there is an Addie Steele, widow of Paul, living at 18 Day street. She has a number of grown children also living there.

In 1910 she and Paul are indexed under the surname "Dacier" as they are also in 1900. Ha! That's where French comes in handy: "d'acier" means "of steel." Paul was born in French Canada.

So that explains why Addie Steele can't be found in very many records, but doesn't explain why she is mistakenly put as the mother of Marion Brown.



Sarah

[garibaldired]

I was interrupted last night when I lost internet access in a thunderstorm.

Nice to have the state-wide records that are all in one place ~ as the digitizing likely happened much earlier than it would have if Ancestry/etc. had needed to get permission from and then go to each town to do the work ~ but it adds a good-sized chance of error while copying

Thanks for that explanation, BJ. Looking at the copper plate writing on the page I did think it was probably an error.
How disappointing though!

How clever you are to spot that, Sarah.

But I wonder why the said Marion is entered as Marion Hunter in the 1920 census. Perhaps the travelling salesman had wandered off?

Best wishes,
Meg

[garibaldired]

Found the three of them in the 1910 census in Manhattan Ward 12 New York on familysearch.org but nothing there for the 1920 or 1930 censuses so far.

Best wishes,
Meg