For families that lived during a time of no vital records or when there are missing vital records, genealogists often do not have dates of birth. In some cases, it may even be difficult to estimate years of birth if records are not available.
In cases such as these, make certain that you indicate the birth order is either a guess or inferred from the order of children in a Will or another document. If children married, years of birth could be estimated from the marriage dates. A death certificate may also have clues as to the date of birth.
When you cannot find a record of birth for an ancestor, research their siblings. Finding the dates of births for siblings can perhaps provide enough evidence to prove an estimated date of birth for the sibling where you cannot find a record for a date of birth or baptism.
An example of this is my own Sullivan family. There is no proof of birth or baptism for my direct ancestor, Patrick Sullivan, because the first name is missing from the vital record for the assumed year of birth or baptism which has been found in other records. But by providing the dates of birth for his siblings, I can with some certainly say that Patrick Sullivan is the child with the missing first name.
There are baptism records in the records of the Notre Dame Roman Catholic Cathedral in St. John’s, Newfoundland digitized by FamilySearch.org for the following children with the same parents:
- Margaret Sullivan – 1815
- John Sullivan – 1817
- ???? Sullivan – 1819
- Thomas Sullivan – 1820
- Catherine Sullivan – 1824
- Michael Sullivan – 1827
- Bridget Sullivan – 1830
Checking the various census records, Patrick Sullivan is found with his siblings with an estimated age that would fit with the birth order. So, from those secondary sources, it can be safely assumed that Patrick Sullivan would be the correct name for the 1819 birth showing no first name.
Ask ask yourself, would any of my conclusions change without the birth records and census returns for Patrick’s siblings? Most times they wouldn’t, but you never know.
Unfortunately there is no death record or a date of birth on Patrick Sullivan’s marriage record, so this remains one of my brick wall research projects.
Genealogy is a puzzle, but sometimes you have to really work to make the puzzle pieces fit, don’t you?