The following is an excerpt from an interesting article about birth records, written by Russell Bangerter, and published in the October 28, 2009 edition of the Mormon Times.
Birth – it’s the first thing that ever happens to us. It marks the moment in which our priceless lives begin and is celebrated annually within cultures all over the world. Ask any teenager waiting to get a driver’s license and they’ll tell you that their birth date is a vital piece of information.
When attempting to learn about where we came from, a simple and often overlooked way to do this is investigate the very day we were born. Researching in old newspapers might help us understand the world environment into which we were being thrown, but the actual birth record can offer specific information about the moment and place we took our first breath.
As you might expect, birth records show names of the newborn and the parents, birth date, birthplace, the attending physician, nurse or mid-wife, and time of delivery. In some cases, birth records report complication that might have happened during the delivery. In cases where the death of a new-born child occurred, there may only be a death record registered, which would show both the birth and death information.
