Does anyone have records of Birth Certificates for births in New York, NY between the years of 1855 and 1864?
If so, would it be possible to locate a birth certificate for a relative named Emilie Yznaga?
She passed on 01 Nov 1944 and the certificate shows her birth year as 1859.
However, her passport applications show 1864 which is a bit of a difference.
I have never been able to find any birth certificates for Emillie, Fernando, Consuelo or Natividad Iznaga Clement using Iznaga, Isnaga, Ysnaga or Yznaga. You say Ysnaga was born in NYC but I think they lived in Orange, NJ.
I have a letter from October 14, 1860 which already mentions Emillie so April 30, 1860 is more likely her birth date. As to the other dates, Emillie was single and may have changed her DOB on passports as a woman's vanity. Their cemetery memorial at Woodlawn only show death dates.
With respect to spelling, there is no "Y" in Basque alphabet, "Y" was used as capital "I" to make it more visible. Also in the 1700's and 1800's it was very common for words beginning with “I” to be written with a “Y” both in common words (Yglesia, Ysla) and Names (Ygnacio, Ybarra ...). In the 1800's in America and in many other countries, Y and I were often interchangeable, as the alphabet was not yet officially 26 letters, and so Y, J, I all were basically used for the same thing as was U for V, thus why a W became shown as two V's joined together.
Although letters C, Ç, Q, V, W, and Y are not used in writing traditional Basque-language words, they were included in the Basque alphabet for writing words borrowed from other languages that do use them.1
In the Spanish language, Y was used as a word-initial form of I that was more visible. (German has used J in a similar way.)
This is not a Birth Certificate but I note that Find A Grave via FamilySearch says:
Name: Emilie Clement Iznaga Maiden Name: Event Type: Burial Event Date: 1944 Event Place: Bronx, Bronx, New York, United States of America Photograph Included: Yes Birth Date: 30 Apr 1864 Death Date: 01 Nov 1944 Affiliate Record Identifier: 112422133 Cemetery: Woodlawn Cemetery
Citing this Record: "Find A Grave Index," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QVG7-C7SS : accessed 20 March 2015), Emilie Clement Iznaga, 1944; Burial, Bronx, Bronx, New York, United States of America, Woodlawn Cemetery; citing record ID 112422133, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.
The birth date of 30 Apr 1864 is consistent with a number of immigration and passport records at FamilySearch which provide birth dates for Emilie Yznaga of:
It may or may not apply, but I suspect that relatives in their grief may struggle to remember a date when providing information for a death certificate at short notice, and have much more time to get it right when ordering a gravestone.
As commented by @bgwiehle:
- The Find-a-Grave memorial apparently was edited since FamilySearch indexing - currently has birthdate as Apr. 30, 1860. Memorial has obit transcripts and photos, current owner has Inzaga in the username, so may have additional information if contacted.
- Passport applications include references to supporting documentation; however, the few [@bgwiehle] looked at didn't include a birth certificate. Interesting that Emilie's always signed as Ynzaga, not Inzaga.
