Tracking down a 1906 birth certificate in rural New York State
I am trying to track down a genealogical copy of an ancestor’s birth certificate but I keep running into dead ends.
Her birth is recorded in the 1906 NYS birth index as being born in Bethany NY and was announced in a newspaper as also occurring in Bethany. I called their town clerk for a record request but was told they found nothing.
Her family lived in a rural area of the state, jumping frequently between nearby towns between 3 neighboring counties.
Rough timeline:
Pre 1900: Buffalo NY (Erie county)
1900-1905: Covington and Pavilion NY (Wyoming & Genesee counties)
1906: (east) Bethany NY (genesee county)
1910: York NY (Livingston county)
1915: Covington NY (Wyoming county)
1920: Buffalo NY (Erie county) - where family remained
her grandfather lived in LeRoy NY and her aunt in Warsaw NY and visited frequently according to newspapers.
I have contacted towns of Pavilion and Batavia and they confirmed they have no record. Genesee county also told me they are unable to assist me. I have reached out to towns of Covington, York and Wyoming but no response yet.
I’m not sure how birth certificates were filed back then so I don’t know if there is a chance it ended up in one of these towns surrounding Bethany NY.
My only other thought is there possibly being a delayed birth certificate in Buffalo, she is on the US social security application index, but I’m not sure how common that was.
Any ideas or insight on how I could better track this down would be appreciated before I keep sending requests and $22 to all of these towns for records that may not be there.