Forget formal birth records! For me, the mystery remains as to why the written correspondence, photo albums, specific keepsakes, etc. left behind didn't provide enough clues.
Even a hundred years ago, people wrote letters to each other, containing vital bits of info like, "Visited with your cousin Clem last Saturday, the day after the big July 4th celebrations here in Podunk Town. He'll be marryin' next week - 17-y-o girl named Anna Reilly from neighboring Bumfunkville, father (blind in one eye) is the pastor of the Anglican Church. Anyways, Clem, he says he got discharged from the Army on Feb. 2 last year because..."
When you digitally scan those hundreds of precious letters - love letters, angry letters, etc. - which those people presciently saved, because they held such high sentimental value, and then pick them apart for key words which are then used for Internet searches...
I have 19th-century obits published in the Danish-language church newsletter of the Minnesota town from which my maternal line hails...
Regards,
That’s true for some but not others, 100 years ago, or longer it was a struggle to survive day to day.
There was no electricity, no one had a car, no one had a telephone, no one had quality medical care, every day it was hard to find enough food for everyone to eat.
Basically there was no Government to speak of, my Grandmother was lucky she got to go to school and learned how to read and write.
A lot of people did keep correspondence, but many did not so keeping track of things like births, deaths, etc were not kept or recorded.