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Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors L.L.C.

My Favorite Vital Record and the Many U.S. Capitols

Published over 1 year ago • 3 min read

My Favorite Vital Record and the Many Capitols of the U.S.

Hello PA Friends,

Hope you are managing in this heat wave we are all having. It's been a good excuse for me to stay inside and do some genealogy. But then again, I can turn anything into a good excuse to do genealogy!

I'm also sending out a special email invitation to my new Inner Circle website this weekend to current members. Scroll down for more information on it.

đź—ş History Highlight

The United States had a surprising number capitols its first 25 years. I thought it was only 3 - Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington D.C., but it was actually 9! The people who lived in and around these places might have had a pint in the local tavern with our first leaders - especially since our government convened in taverns (check out NY and NJ)!

Perhaps you can trace your early ancestors to one of these locations. I'll be putting up images of the Pennsylvania locations on my Instagram here this weekend.

First Continental Congress

  • September 5, 1774 to October 24, 1774: Philadelphia, Carpenter’s Hall

Second Continental Congress

  • May 10, 1775 to December 12, 1776: Philadelphia, State House
  • December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777: Baltimore, Henry Fite’s House
  • March 4, 1777 to September 18, 1777: Philadelphia, State House
  • September 27, 1777 (one day): Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Court House
  • September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778: York, Pennsylvania, Court House
  • July 2, 1778 to March 1, 1781: Philadelphia, College Hall, then State House

Congress under the Articles of Confederation

  • March 1, 1781 to June 21, 1783: Philadelphia, State House
  • June 30, 1783 to November 4, 1783: Princeton, New Jersey, “Prospect,” then Nassau Hall
  • November 26, 1783 to August 19, 1784: Annapolis, Maryland, State House
  • November 1, 1784 to December 24, 1784: Trenton, New Jersey, French Arms Tavern
  • January 11, 1785 to Autumn 1788: New York, City Hall, then Fraunce’s Tavern

Congress under the Constitution

  • March 4, 1789 to August 12, 1790: New York, Federal Hall
  • December 6, 1790 to May 14, 1800: Philadelphia, Philadelphia County Building–Congress Hall
  • November 17, 1800: Washington D.C., U.S. Capitol

Source: https://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/Nine_Capitals_of_the_United_States.htm​

đź”– Featured Genealogy Record

Here’s tips on finding my favorite genealogy record - Delayed Birth Certificates (I always want to write this record in all caps - DELAYED BIRTH CERTIFICATES. I love them that much!)

People usually applied to their county courthouse for them, so start by searching the FamilySearch catalog of images by going to Catalog, then typing in “Pennsylvania, XXXX County”. The XXXX is the name of the county you are interested in searching. You’ll get a page of records by category, scroll down to Vital Records and click on it to see if the Delayed Birth Certificates are there.

When you open a set of county-issued Delayed Birth Certificates, they are in order by date of application (not birth year or name). Look for a index in the images or a separate index one in the Vital Records category. Some counties added the applicants into the 1893-1905 county birth registrations books, so check there too.

To add to the complexity of finding Delayed Birth Certificates, some people applied to the state Department of Health (DOH). Ancestry has indexed a few of these under the year of birth, not the year of application (unlike the counties). The Pennsylvania Birth Certificate collection is here and if you click on the "Year" on the right, you’ll see some Delayed Birth Certificates for 1911. These are indexed like the others, so they will come up when you search for them in the search box.

To find Delayed Birth Certificates for all birth years 1906–1916 go to the original DOH indexes at the PA State Archives here. You'll find people handwritten into the indexes - those are the applicants with approved Delayed Birth Certificates.

🎙 What’s New on the Podcast

​This week’s podcast episode is on my favorite vital record which is also the hardest vital record to find - Delayed Birth Certificates. I detail what the record is, where to find them, and share the story of my ancestor who changed his birth year with one 👀

You can also find the latest episode on your favorite podcast app here.

🍬 Just for the Inner Circle

A special invitation will be going out this weekend to a current members of the Inner Circle. Look for it in your email inbox. I found a new website platform that has everything people have asked for. And it's nice looking too! After the mess of trying to do it in Wordpress - thank you again for your understand!, I want to make sure that everything is pretty and functional for current members in the new site. Looking forward to providing lots of resources to help people find out everything they can about their ancestors here.

Hi! I'm Denyse Allen, Founder of PA Ancestors L.L.C.

I help genealogists research their ancestors in Pennsylvania through books, workshops, and webinars.

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