It's as if there's seemingly a story on every line of my Dad's birth certificate. There almost, literally, is.
Yesterday would have been his 71st birthday. He was born May 9, 1943. He died in 2004.
His wife and kids knew him as John R. Platt. His parents nicknamed him "Ranny" yet neither of these names are on the certificate. What's the story? In high school, he changed over to using his baptismal name, John. Up until then, he was Randy or Ranny, nicknamed for Randolph.
It was always said he would have trouble collecting social security since he never legally change his name to John. He died before he had a chance to find out.
Youngstown is shown as his father's birthplace. Oddly, that can't be confirmed. His still-living daughter thinks he may been born in Meadville, PA and the timing of his birth around other evidence causes me to think that's right.
I recently found his mother's name, Eugenia, was not in her birth record either. She was born Mary Elizabeth Baker according to Pittsburgh birth records. No one can explain the story there.
There's his mother's age. She is listed as 32 years old. She was, actually, 35. The story here is that she had fibbed about her real age to my grandfather when they met. She carried that lie over to marriage certificates, Census, and birth certificates until she was in her 60's. She even was late collecting social security because she waited to confess the truth. She was embarrassed to be five years older than her husband.
I wonder why it took five months for his hospital birth to get signed and recorded. He was born in May yet the paperwork wasn't filed until October. I don't know the story there.
One document can tell a lot of stories.
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