"Maryland Motherlode" Baltimore City Birth Index Praise and Question

Question

Hello everyone! I am working to connect Mo'Nique as a Black Heritage Notable (see this post), and noticed her father, Steven Imes Jr. was born in Maryland and has unknown parents. I realized that the Maryland Motherlode would be helpful in this instance! It was incredibly useful and I highly recommend taking a look!

I believe that I have found the correct parents for Steven Jr. in the Baltimore City Birth Index 1939 on page 127. It lists a child born on July 13th to Steven Imes & Lillian. I feel quite confident that this is the correct birth record, but I noticed the record also states "E-97344." What does this reference and where could I find it?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The description below the image of the index says "Entries give names of parents, date of birth, and birth certificate number. The name of the child is not indexed because sometimes this information does not appear on the birth certificates." So E-97344 is the birth certificate number. The Maryland Motherload page says "birth records in Maryland are restricted for a hundred years, hence the 1922 cut-off on publishing copies of actual certificates". It sounds like a 1939 certificate would probably be at the Maryland State Archives but can't be published online until about 2039.

Comments

Awesome, thank you!

Answer 2

It's not a date like 122623 for today. In the case when twins were born, the numbers are in succession. Perhaps birth certificate numbers?