Death Records Now

Looking for parents of :
James Francis Johnson..dob March 1871 in Buffalo,New York.
father :James Johnson born in Ireland.
mother of Irish decent: Margaret Hassen ( this is on his death certificate) born in New York. I do not have a birth date for either. This is a clasic brickwall.Any help would be so welcomed. Thank you.

Have you tried to secure his birth record. That will give you more definite information on the dates and location for his parent’s marriage.

According to the New York state archives http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_gen_vitalstats.shtml "The indexes do not include births and deaths in Albany, Buffalo, and Yonkers prior to 1914, or marriages in those cities prior to 1908. (Contact the local registrar of vital statistics in those cities for information about earlier records.)"

So my best guess is to start with the registrar Buffalo about your ancestor’s records. They were likely married in the area as well so you should check about the marriage records at the same time.

Are you sure that Hassen is his mother’s maiden name and not a 2nd marriage after becoming a widow?

I’m doing some family history research and I’ve found some death records for certain family members…other documents state that this person was born around 1860 in texas, but when I looked at the state where the social security number was issued it said kansas…why would this be?
keep in mind that this person would have been born a slave in 1860…I’m assuming that he may have moved to kansas sometime after the emancipation of 1863, and that’s where he applied, but I have yet to find a record for him in kansas…all of his children where born in Indian Territory, Oklahoma in the early 1900’s and 19-teens. and I have found census records of that.

Social Security was first enacted in August 1935; payroll taxes were first collected in 1937; the first monthly payment was issued in January 1940, but it wasn’t until 1972 that the US government authorized Social Security to enumerate children at the time they first entered school. Only in 1988 did Congress require a taxpayer identification number, which was ordinarily a Social Security number, of each dependent child age two or older.

Accordingly, US Census records could very well document that your ancestor was born in Texas in 1860, but his or her Social Security records would indicate he or she was living in Kansas at the time his Social Security card was issued. I can personally remember a 9th-grade teacher obtaining Social Security numbers for all his algebra students in 1965, so at that point, enrollment for non-working minors was completely voluntary.

You also need not look for a birth certificate for an ancestor born in 1860 Texas. Indeed, about the best you can do on that score, other than looking at US Census records, is to find his or her birth date recorded in a family bible. Up through the 1920s, births in many states were only recorded if a child was born in a hospital, but in rural and small town Texas, most children were born at home. My mother and dad who were born in 1920 and 1925 respectively didn’t have thieir birth certificates issued until 1981 when Dad decided to take Mom to Europe and show her just where he had been stationed in World War II. In each case, older siblings swore that they were present at the time of birth.

P. S. African-Americans who were slaves weren’t enumerated until 1870, although depending on the family, the census records are fairly accurate in the latter decades of the 19th century. From 1870 and any time afterwards, a census would prpbably show that your ancestor was born in Texas in 1860.