Monday's Diggings

Pauline Mentzer’s Delayed Birth Certificate

Have you ever found a birth certificate that was created decades after the birth it records?

Among the records in my genealogy files is a delayed birth certificate for my grandmother, Pauline Edith Mentzer Briles. Pauline was born March 25, 1896, in Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas, the daughter of Charles Oliver Mentzer and Nettie Adell Wells.

Since Pauline was born before Kansas began statewide registration of births, there was no state birth certificate created for her in 1896. More than sixty years later, in January 1958, Pauline applied for a delayed certificate of birth.

What makes this record particularly interesting is that it not only documents Pauline's birth but also identifies the evidence used to prove it.

Delayed Certificate of Birth

The upper portion of the certificate provides the following information:

Full name at birth: Pauline Edith Mentzer
Date of birth: March 25, 1896
Birthplace: Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas
Color or race: White
Sex: Female

Father: Charles Oliver Mentzer
Father's birthplace: Illinois

Mother's maiden name: Nettie Adell Wells
Mother's birthplace: Kansas

Pauline signed the certificate using her married name:

Signature of registrant: Pauline E. Mentzer Briles
Address: 138 W. 12th, Emporia
Subscribed and sworn: January 13, 1958

The certificate was filed with the Kansas State Board of Health on January 29, 1958.

Abstract of Supporting Evidence

For me, the most interesting part of this certificate is the section titled “Abstract of Supporting Evidence.” Pauline had to provide evidence supporting the facts of a birth that had occurred more than sixty years earlier.

The first piece of evidence was a newspaper birth record:

Newspaper Birth Record, Farmers Advocate, Yates Center, Kansas
Date of original document: April 10, 1896

The information taken from that record was:

• Birth date: March 1896

• Birthplace: Yates Center, Kansas

• Father: Mr. Chas. Mentzer

• Mother: Mrs. Chas. Mentzer

The second source was the Kansas State Census:

Kansas State Census Record, Vol. 162, Sec. 1, Page 14, Woodson County
Date of original document: March 1905

The information extracted from the census was:

• Age: 8 years

• Birthplace: Kansas

• Father: C. O. Mentzer

• Mother: N. A. Mentzer

The certificate also contains the notation:

“Wells not shown.”

Apparently, neither of these supporting records provided Pauline's mother's maiden name of Wells.

Family and Neighbor Affidavits

Pauline also supplied affidavits to support the information on the application. The certificate states:

“Affidavits: Aunt—Clara E. Williams and Neighbor—Judge A. Cope dated Jan. 10, 1958, attesting to the above stated facts.”

That little statement is one of those details that makes a delayed birth certificate more than simply a record of a birth. It identifies Clara E. Williams as Pauline's aunt and Judge A. Cope as a neighbor—two people who apparently knew enough about Pauline and her family to attest to the circumstances of her birth.

A Record That Points to Other Records

Delayed birth certificates can sometimes be viewed as less desirable than certificates created near the time of the birth—and for good reason. Pauline was providing information about her birth more than sixty years after it occurred.

However, this certificate also tells me how that information was established.

In particular, it points me toward an April 10, 1896 issue of the Farmers Advocate of Yates Center. Since that newspaper item was published just a few weeks after Pauline's birth, finding the original article would give me a record created very close to the event.

The certificate also identifies the 1905 Kansas census and two people who supplied affidavits.

Thus, this one piece of paper provides more than my grandmother's date and place of birth. It gives me a trail of additional records and people to investigate.

And that's one of the reasons I keep digging through those old family files. Sometimes a familiar record contains a clue I didn't fully appreciate the first time I saw it.