u/miltonisacat

Hi friends, do you know if I need an official letter from New Brunswick saying my ancestor didn’t have a birth certificate? It was 1850 and they weren’t really doing those then.

I don’t have a birth record for my Gen 0, but I do have a baptismal record via ancestry. How do I make this legit? Do I need to request it on the church letterhead or something? And do they just know that no one had birth certificates at that time or do I need to request one from the county where he was born and wait for them to tell me they did not make them?

Thanks friends!

I have hit a couple of roadblocks, and I wanted to know if you guys thought what o have is enough, or if you have any ideas of what I should search for:

1: My Gen 0 was born in 1851 in New Brunswick. There does not seem to be a birth certificate or baptismal record (they were Catholic). The church they ended up being a part of hadn’t been built yet. I have a lot of census records showing him in York county, including when he was under a year old.

He moved to California via the port of St. John to (I assume) San Francisco. I have census records from the us stating his place of birth. I have his death certificate stating his place of birth.

2: His Daughter, my Gen 1, was born in San Francisco in the 1880s. Unfortunately, all vital records prior to 1906 were lost in the earthquake and subsequent fires. I don’t know where to look for a baptismal record for her, and it’s likely to have met the same fate anyway. I do have her marriage certificate, which lists her birthdate and her parents, as well as their places of origin. I also have census records for her, which all show that her father was from New Brunswick, Canada.

3: Lastly, my mother was an identical twin and her birth certificate does not list a first name. She later got her parents to certify that she was who she said when she was in her 20s. I have the certifications. Will this be ok?

Also are census records from ancestry usable?

Thanks!