A Bit Of Confusion

After receiving all the information from my Great Grandparents John Valentine Shablack and Norma Fullerton’s marriage license I wanted to know more about Norma, so I sent off for a birth certificate. I figured it would not be hard to find actually since I had her place of birth on the marriage certificate. However, it did cost a stamp, envelope, a few dollars and several weeks of patiently waiting the results.

After about a month I received a response. The letter said that they had no record of a Norma Fullerton born on August 1^st between 1908-1909 “these are the years I figured she was born due to the marriage certificate”. This disappointed me but I did not let it discourage me. The clerk who wrote the letter did tell me  that they found a Marguerite Fullerton born the day before in 1909 with the parents I had listed and asked if I would like a copy of that person, of course I replied yes.

A few weeks later, I received the birth certificate of a Marguerite Fullerton born on July 31^st 1909 in Fleming, Washington County, Ohio. The parents listed were, William R Fullerton and Myrtle Johnson. I knew this had to be her only thing that was different was Norma’s name, birth date and her father’s middle initial, so I had to call my Aunt Norma up and talk to her about my find.

My Aunt Norma told me that yes my great grandmother’s name was in fact Marguerite, and my mom also confirmed it. For some reason, she liked to be called Norma and used that name throughout her life and I believe that is where my Aunt Norma may have received her name.

At the time I did not understand why she would use a name that was not given to her at birth nor did I understand why someone would change their birth day to be only one day younger. However, now after years of research I have found many individuals were born with a first and last name, but were called by another name growing up. Basically the name they were called by  is a middle name that was never recorded on their birth record. As for the birth date changing by one day or some times by years that is also a very common thing. Many people never really paid attention to their birth days or ages in the early 20^th century and before. Today knowing someone’s correct birthday is ritualized by a celebration and it is more common thanks to commercialization.  

Forward a bit….

After receiving my Great Grandmother Norma Fullerton-Shablack’s birth certificate I started wondering why I never sent off for my own Grandmother Wanda Virginia Shablack’s birth record, so that was my next quest.

I knew Wanda was born in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia, so I put in a request and within a few weeks I was holding my grandmothers birth record.

Wanda’s birth certificate provided me with her birthdate as November 13^th 1926 and her parents as John Valentine Shablack age 22 and Norma Marguerite Fullerton age 17. Their address on the certificate was listed as 535 S. York St Wheeling, WV.  Out of curiosity I wanted to see exactly where this address in Wheeling was located so I decided to Google it. Apparently they lived on Wheeling Island on the Ohio River in 1926. The original structure is not there anymore and the street has been renamed, but it was still really cool to see the area through Google maps.

535 S. York St Wheeling, West Virginia

What was odd about the certificate is that it listed Wanda’s mothers name as Norma Marguerite instead of the opposite. I guess this did prove that my great grandmother preferred to be called Norma Marguerite instead of Marguerite Norma.  Another anomaly on the birth record was that my great grandmother listed her birth place as Marietta, Ohio instead of Fleming, OH. However, I traced the distance between the two towns and they are only about 11 miles apart, and Marietta is the larger of the two so listing Marietta made a bit of sense. Maybe she and her family went to Marietta all the time when they needed to purchase goods, or they could of moved their later.

Fleming, OH to Marietta, OH

My Grandmother Wanda’s birth record also had another example of miss matched birthdates. My Great Grandmother was listed as being 17 years old when she had Wanda, but she married John Valentine Shablack when she was 18. Which is true, which is right? I honestly think that they just did not pay much attention to how old they were back then.

Wanda’s father and my great grandfather John Valentine Shablack was listed to be 22 years old when Wanda was born, which did matched up to the marriage record of 21. He had a birthday on August 4^th, so that would have made him the 22 years of age when my grandmother Wanda was born in November. The certificate also listed his occupation at the time of her birth as a Produce dealer. I am guessing he did not work for a big supermarket back then and probably just sold Produce to local shops.

Although, I found a few discrepancies in the records I was searching for, I had learned a lot. One thing is to never just trust a birth date that is given to you or that you find on one record, there is always a chance that it could be wrong. That said, most likely the date would remain close to the one you have so just search a few days before and after, this goes for years as well. As for the names, it can be a bit trickier; you need to know the name of a person before searching for a record. I was really lucky that the clerk let me know about there being a person similar to the one I was looking for and asking if I wanted a copy of that record. Most instances that were similar the clerks never let me know and it ended up costing several more stamps, envelopes, dollars and lots of time.

Now with receiving my Great Grandmothers and Grandmother’s birth certificates I needed to focus my search back onto John Valentine Shablack.  After all, this search is all about finding my Polish roots.

This photo is of John V Shablack and Wanda Virginia Shablack about 1926-27