Paw Paw's Birth—Born in 1913, Filed in 1932

Source:  Johnson County, Illinois, "Record of Births Reported to County Clerk," delayed birth certificate unnumbered (1932), volume 5, p. 427, Retta May Martin; County Clerk's Office, Vienna.

[Note: Pre-printed form with transcribed answers in bold.]

Record of Births Reported to County Clerk

427 [stamped]

Certificate of Birth

1. PLACE OF BIRTH

    County of: Johnson

    Township of, Road District of, or Village of: [Blank]

    or City of: [Blank]

    Registration District No.: [Blank]

    Primary District No.: [Blank]

    Registered No. (Consecutive No.): [Blank]

    Street and Number, No.: [Blank]

    St.: [Blank]

    Ward: [Blank]

    Hospital: [Blank]

    (If birth occurred in hospital or institution, give its name instead of street and number.)

2. FULL NAME OF CHILD: Retta May Martin

    If child is not yet named, make supplemental report, as directed.

3. Sex of Child: F

4. Twin, triplet, or other?: [Blank]

5. Number in order of birth: [Blank]

    (To be answered only in the event of Plural births.)

6. Legitimate?: yes

7. Date of birth: (Month) May (Day) 28 (Year) 1914

FATHER

8. FULL NAME: J.A. Martin

9. RESIDENCE (P.O. Address) Buncombe

10. COLOR: white

11. AGE AT LAST BIRTHDAY: 41 Years

12. BIRTHPLACE (City or Place): [Blank]

      (Name State, if in U.S.): Ill

      (Name County, if Foreign): [Blank]

13. OCCUPATION: Engineer

      (Nature of Industry): [Blank]

MOTHER

14. FULL MAIDEN NAME: Lilly may Ally

15. RESIDENCE (P.O. Address): Buncombe

16: COLOR: White

17: AGE AT LAST BIRTHDAY: 21 Years

18. BIRTHPLACE (City or Place): [Blank]

      (Name State, if in U.S.): Ill

      (Name Country, if Foreign): [Blank]

19. OCCUPATION: Hwife

      (Nature of Industry): [Blank]

20. NUMBER OF CHILDREN OF THIS MOTHER (Taken as of time of birth of child herein certified and including this child)

      (a) Born alive and now living: 3

      (b) Born alive and now dead: 1

      (c) Stillborn: 0

WHAT TREATMENT WAS GIVEN CHILD'S EYES AT BIRTH?: [Blank]

21. CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDING PHYSICIAN OR MIDWIFE*

I hereby certify that I attended the birth of this child, who was born alive at [BLANK] M., on the date above stated.

*When there is no attending physician or midwife, then the father, mother, householder, etc., shall make this return.  See Sec. 12 of vital stastistics law.

22. (Signature) (Physician or Midwife): J.A. Martin Father M.D. Midwife

      Address: [Blank]

      Telephone: [Blank]

      Date Certificate Signed: (Month) [Blank] (Day) [Blank] Year 192[Blank]

23. Given name added from a supplemental report: (Month) [Blank] (Day) [Blank], (Year) 192[Blank]

      Registrar: [Blank]

24. Filed: [Blank], 192[Blank]

      Registrar: [Blank]

      Post Office Address: [Blank]

Filed for Record this 5/11 day of [Blank] 19232

Clerk: Martha. E. Burris, [Signature]

**********

Analysis

While not marked as delayed, it is a delayed birth registration. J.A. Martin, or Joel Arthur Martin clearly registered his daughter Retta May Martin's (Paw Paw, my paternal grandmother) birth well after her birth. It is not surprising her parents did not register it earlier since they lived in rural Johnson County, Illinois. 

Handwriting suggests the person who filled out the form is the same person who signed "J.A. Martin Father" but differs from the clerk's signature. It is possible that Joel filled it out himself as he could read and write.[1] There is no registration number assigned to this registration. The spelling of her name differs from how she spelled it, "Rettie Maye". The listed date of birth differs from what Paw Paw reported on her social security application, 28 April 1913, which is also listed on her death certificate.[2]

My Notes and Thoughts

Rettie Maye Martin, 15 years old, abt. 1928.

Most likley born at her rural home, it is hard to say which birthdate is correct for her because she wasn't exactly truthful about a lot of things for many reasons, some known. Also, I wonder what prompted him to do it on 11 May 1932, specifically. Paw Paw did not apply for a social security number until 1968, but that is usually why a delayed birth certificate would be needed. [3]

Rettie Maye with her son Joseph Marshall, February 1937

There are two reasons I am interested in this document. First, I am trying to track down where she was after 1930 and before December 1936, when my father was born.[4] Did she go back to southern Illinois between living in Fort Bend County, Texas in 1930 and living in San Antonio, Bexar, Texas in 1936? Did she go back and forth?

L-R: Carole Marshall, Joel Arthur Martin, and Joseph Marshall, c.1942

Second, her father Joel, my paternal great grandfather, is a mystery, too, in this time period and around his death in 1948.[5] This document nails his feet down, so to speak, in Johnson County on that filing date in 1932. When I received her birth certificate after going back and forth with the state archives and the county clerk's office, I was just so happy to have received it that his occupation did not click with me until I transcribed the form. He listed "Engineer" as his occupation.

I had previously hypothesized he had worked for the railroad: 

• There isn't much industry in southern Illinois other than agriculture, the railroad, and coal.
• I have a photo of him in a uniform that makes one think "railroad."
• His pocketwatch was one that a railroad worker would have used.
• And in 1930, seemingly randomly since they were from Johnson County, Illinois, his children—Roscoe (19), Rettie Maye (16), and Mabel (14)—are living by themselves on a rented farm in rural Fort Bend County, Texas, near the town of Katy, named after the Missouri, Kansas, Texas (M-K-T) railroad line. [6]

Joel Arthur Martin and his pocketwatch.

When I looked at some railroad maps in that time period, I determined one could take the train from Vienna, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri, and hop on a Missouri, Kansas, Texas (M-K-T) train and be on their way down to Ft. Bend County, Texas. Also, the M-K-T had a stop in San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, where Paw Paw eventually ended up and gave birth to my dad in 1936. Likewise, one can also hop on a M-K-T train in Texas and head back home pretty easily too. Wild and far-fetched, I know, but...

That one word, "Engineer," on the occupation blank on her delayed birth certificate was exciting to see and lends a little more weight to my theory. Now to find the M-K-T railroad files. The Houston History Research Center has some M-K-T records. I'll contact them to see what all they have. And I'll explore the railroad history in Johnson County, Illinois. Did Joel work for them? Are there any extant records? What kind? By 1940, Joel is not working and living in Bloomfield, Illinois, near his youngest daughter Mabel and her family, but it is possible he did not die in Illinois at all.[7] So, if not, where did he die? Maybe he died there and it wasn't recorded, like his daughter's birth.

Someone recorded Joel's death on his tombstone and another memorialized it on Find A Grave. It indicates he died in 1948. [8] 

• The state of Illinois and Johnson County do not have a record of his death. [9]
• He doesn't appear on the Social Security Index. [10]
• He doesn't appear on the Railroad Retirement Index (1934-1987). [11] 

Presumably family buried him next to his wife Lillie May in the Taylor United Methodist Church in Vienna where their landline is no longer working. [12]😅I contacted the Johnson County Genealogical Society via Facebook, but they directed me to Find A Grave. I then wrote the society, but they did not have any information sbout my Martin family, but they verified the church was still open and passed along my inquiry about the church to someone at the church. That person sent me a random picture of Joel's tombstone (from Find A Grave) via text, but did not return my immediate text response explaining that I was in search of his burial record, nor did they answer my phone call. So, I've explained to my husband that if my letter direct to the church yields nothing, then we need to head to Johnson County, Illinois, because I think being boots on the ground would be easier. And faster. LOL. I could then have a look-see at probate, tax, and land records too.😘 

So, more work to do to flesh out their story and to solve other research problems. Our work is never done is it?

~Caroline

1. 1900 U.S. census, Johnson County, Illinois, Bloomfield, population schedule, Enumeration District (ED) 36, p. 176 (stamped), sheet 8-B, dwelling 113, family 113, Joel Martin household; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/7602/ : 12 August 2021), National Archives microfilm T623, roll 309.

2. Maye Marshall, SS no. 451-98-8135, 12 August 1968, Application for Account Number (Form SS-5), Social Security Administration, Maryland. Also, Texas Department of State Health Services Vital Statstics Unit, death certificate no. 142-03-036004, Maye M. Marshall, 9 April 2003; Texas Department of Health, Austin.

3. Maye Marshall, SS no. 451-98-8135, 12 August 1968, Application for Account Number (Form SS-5), Social Security Administration, Maryland.

4. City of San Antonio Board of Health, birth certificate no. 6441 (1936), Baby Martin; Bureau of Vital Statistics, San Antonio. And, Texas Department of State Health Services, delayed birth certificate no. 843951 (1943), Joesph Kent Marshall Jr; Vital Statstics Unit, Austin.

5. Ancestry, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : 25 March 2021), database with images, memorial #50505974, Joel Arthur Martin (1871-1948), Taylor United Methodist Church Cemetery, Vienna, Johnson, Illinois; gravestone photograph by chris cornell.

6. 1930 U.S. census, Fort Bend, Texas, Precinct 8, population schedule, Enumeration District (ED) 20, p. 283 (stamped), sheet 1-B, dwelling no. 20, family no. 20, Roscow Martin household; image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/ : 11 July 2011), National Archives microfilm T626, roll 2333. 

7. 1940 U.S. census, Johnson County, Illinois, Bloomfield, population schedule, Enumeration District (ED) 44-1, p. 3423 (stamped), sheet 1-B, household 18, James W. Blacketer household; image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Mar 2020); National Archives microfilm T627, roll 4208.

8. Ancestry, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : 25 March 2021), database with images, memorial #50505974, Joel Arthur Martin (1871-1948), Taylor United Methodist Church Cemetery, Vienna, Johnson, Illinois; gravestone photograph by chris cornell.

9. Illinois Department of Health, "Certification That Record Was Not Found," 14 December 2020, Joel Arthur Martin, date of death 1948, Johnson County, Illinois. And, Johnson County Clerk, Letter indicating record not found, 11 April 2022, Joel Arthur Martin, date of death 1948, Johnson County, Illinois.

10. "U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3693/ : 22 March 2022), negative search for "Joel Arthur Martin"and "J.A. Martin" born in 1871, died in 1948.

11. "U.S., Railroad Retirement Pension Index, 1934-1987," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/61597/ : 2 April 2022), negative search for "Joel Arthur Martin" and "J.A. Martin" born in 1871, died in 1948. 

12. Ancestry, Find A Grave (http://www.findagrave.com : 25 March 2021), database with images, memorial #50505974, Joel Arthur Martin (1871-1948), Taylor United Methodist Church Cemetery, Vienna, Johnson, Illinois; gravestone photograph by chris cornell.