My paternal grandmother was 18 years old when, on May 4, 1929, she and her paternal aunt Amanda (Mangels) Giles signed their names before a notary public, essentially testifying to the date and place of Frances Lois Mangels’ birth.

No mention of why there wasn’t a certificate issued when the woman who would become Grandma Brenke was born on January 23, 1911. No mention of where she, the subject of the delayed birth certificate, was living at the time. Disappointing.

Most interesting to me however is the answer given to item #20, “Number of children of this mother”. My grandmother had two younger brothers. Did she misunderstand the question posed to her? Was she unaware of the youngest boy? Or was she, like others around her, rewriting that piece of her family history?