I had started another blog several years ago at http://myfamilyresearchadventures.blogspot.com/, but when google plus ended some how I messed things up and now it is very difficult for me to get into that blog to post. So I decided to start a new blog that I can get to easier.

Thursday, April 24, 2014


Dear Myrtle's: 3-2-1 Ragu Challenge

Event: My grandfather John C Bionaz birth
Clerk of Orphan's Court. Births 1893-1905: Register of Birth V 3-4: item 1-2. Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Family History Library Salt Lake City Utah. FHL microfilm 1293469. Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah: transcribed by Betty-Lu Baker Burton 23 May 1985.


John Bionaz Certificate of Baptism (2 different copies); 16 october 1922, 4 august 1969, St John Cualbert Church, Johnstown, PA; privately held by Betty-Lu Baker Burton, [address for private use]; St John Gualbert's Church, Johnstown, PA.
Large Marriage Certificate of John Charles Bionaz and Elizabeth Grace Hawke, 19 May 1929, privately held by Betty-Lu Baker Burton, [address for private use], 2014. Lists where the record was recorded. I received this sometime after John C Bionaz death. Recorded in Book 286 of Marriage Certificates Page 397, Records of the city and County of San Francisco State of California. On back #2128, Married by W J Fisher

The back of the Marriage Certificate
    The Birth Records on Microfilm #1293469, Cambria County, Pennsylvania was in a ledger style. The informant would go to the Clerk's office and the clerk would write the information on the next blank line. So as I transcribed the record I noticed that the birth happened 21 Oct 1905 and the birth was recorded 23 May 1905. So Apparently the Clerk put the wrong year down for the birth. This possibly happening because it was 5 months into 1905 and he just out of habit put down the current year and forgot the birth happened the year before.
      The Baptismal record supports this assumption by listing the birth as 21 Oct 1904 and the baptism being 7 Jan 1905. This puts the baptism record as being closer to the actual birth than the recording of the birth. The marriage record also supports this conclusion. John C Bionaz being 24 in May of 1929. This puts is birth in the year 1904, since his birth had not yet happened in 1929. 
      The difference in the middle name was explained to me. John C Bionaz did not like Camel as a middle name and somewhat informally used Charles instead. This came to light after the birth of his grandson John Charles Baker was born and he wondered where the name came from. At that time he informed his daughter, Elizabeth Joan Bionaz Baker (John Charles Baker's) mother that his name was Camille not Charles. 

3 comments:

  1. Great source citations. Way to bring your research analysis to a new level!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nicely done. Although they are two separate sources, they may have had the same informant(a parent.) I was a little confused about the marriage certificate in regards to his birth especially with the last half of the sentence in paragraph 2 under the MC, " since his birth had not yet happened in 1929.

    ReplyDelete