Which is my Place of Birth? Town of the hospital? Or town of my home?

Question

Ok, this might be a strange question, but I know I put down my "hometown" as my Place of Birth, and it's probably where anyone that knows me would think to look up.  But is that actually the correct place to use?  Technically, I was born in a hospital two towns over, so should I use the town my parents lived in at my birth, or would it be in the town the hospital is physically in?  (I don't have my Birth Certificate in front of me at the moment, so I'm not sure which is listed there, but I suspect it's the town of the hospital.)

While I'm at it, let me ask, what should I read to get a good idea of where and how to start  on genealogy.  I'm a total newbie on this, but I've long been wanting to track back my ancestors to see where things lead.   So any tips/advice on what to read to learn about how to do this, would be very much appreciated.  (I'm already fascinated with the tid bits I've been able to google search and find, as well as frustrated on the stuff I haven't been able to find/track down yet.)

Comments

You probably should mention for which country you want to know this,  because legislation and rules about this can differ.:)

I know in my country - the Netherlands - the place of birth on your birth certificate is the municipality you are actually born in. When you are born in a hospital, the municipality where the hospital is will be mentioned on your birth certificate.

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Your hometown and your place of birth don't have to be the same place.

Or, as one of my relatives would put it, you "were born" in the town in which the hospital was located "because you wanted to be close to" your "mother!"

(If my answer isn't clear, it's the town in which the hospital is located.)

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Isn't this an example of a case you would want to explain in the biography?  I know that i was born in a hospital 70 miles away from the town my parents lived in, because there had just been a fire in the home-town hospital.  My birth certificate says that i was born in the town that had the functioning hospital, and if anyone wanted to check my sources at source, that is where they would have to go.  However, they won't find my family on any census docs in that town --  all other records would be connected to the home-town.  So if i wanted to be both accurate and helpful, i would need to explain the situation.  Which i didn't on my own bio, so now I'll go off and do that!

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The name of the hospital and the town that it's in should be printed on the birth certificate.  If not, there should be a number code on the certificate somewhere,  You should be able to type that in and it should come up.  They won't let you change the birthplace as you were not born in your home town. That could cause legal issues for the hospital and lots of paperwork to fabricate a federal document.  If you are trying to find out where the hospital is, just look 70 miles around from your hometown and look at the names of the cities.  One might ring a bell for you.  I do repeat, if you are trying to change the birth location, in the United States, they won't do it.  It's illegal as a birth certificate is a federal document.  If I misunderstood what I read and am way off base, then I do humbly apologize .

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I understand what you are asking. My place of birth is Monterey, Putnam, Tennessee which is in an adjacent county to where my hometown is Pleasant Hill, Cumberland, Tennessee. I always say I was born in Monterey but grew up in Pleasant Hill.

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I was born in Georgia, USA but my family never lived there.  My birth certificate reflects the location of the hospital where I was born.   It was only a few miles from our home in Alabama. I never use the name of the hospital, just town, county,  state,  United States.

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Hi,  place of birth is town, state, country.

Have a good day

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William, Your birth town caught my eye. My great grandfather [Hunt-19615|Thomas Hunt] died in Monterey in the Civil War, 1862.

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I've been reading all the answers everyone has commented on. Most are why we all have issues completing or confirming profiles. Biggest complaint is female married name in the maiden name location. Others are using pre USA years as post usa. We were colonial colonists in a colony.  

Birth place, I use name of hospital or at home, city or town.  Next Township if available at time of birth. Next County, and then X Colony or country. Reason being, we are trying to recreate the life and history of that person. If I'm the only pearson that knows my father was born in the family home by a local Doctor, I'll put that in where I can. No one a 100 years from now would know he was educated in a one room school house until high-school, I'll put that in.

Did he die at home in a barn or accident,  Was he or his family buried in the family cemetery or out next to the big oak tree, on the family farm or along the road. These are experiences only known to a few. Yet your 3 great grandchild may want to know, and feel a need to know these experiences. These experiences are entirely why we are antiquarian's. We want to know our family and friends. If you don’t put all the information into the profile, no one else may care to put it in. We all live to be remembered for something or nothing. We owe it to our ancestors and descendents to remember them as they were. There is no such thing as too little information, or too much.

Thank you Everyone.

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Not all people are born in a town, some are born in boats some on trains and some on tiny islands.

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It gets a bit more complicated for location of death. At least in Ontario, Canada, where I live in most cases only a doctor or medical examiner can certify that a person has died. Paramedics are required to try to resuscitate a person so declared death location (likely a hospital in most cases) and actual location may not be the same place.

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Love that comment. Thankyou!

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The things that stick in our minds sre the stories surrounding a person, the way someone pronounces a name, whether they danced a lot, excelled at sports, quoted Shakespeare, used expressions, sang a lot, volunteered, was well read…..,

Answer 1

My children's birth certs go something like this:

Name  Baby xxxx  Residence: littletown, MA

Birth 11-11-92  9:02 a. m.   XYZ Hospital, BIGCITY, MA

Father:  name       Residence: littletown, MA

Mother:  name      Residence: littletown, MA

And the official birth record copy:   Baby xxxx Born: littletown, MA uses the place of residence as the official place of birth.

Comments

OK, so I definitely need to review the birth certificate tonight, to see how it lists things.   Thanks!

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I read that as the child is born in XYC Hospital, Big City, MA

- if that is not so there wouldn't exist the question of children of foreigners(that might not have an official American address) born in the US as having American citizenship.  The best example would be Jesus Christ who as the story goes was born in a manger in Bethleham while his parents certainly weren't living in Bethleham at the time. Of course, maybe that's why he's called Jesus of Nazareth I don't know much about these particulars.

- same for death, John F. Kenneedy didn't die at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

- also on Social Security Death file last place of residence is no proof of where someone has died

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Thank you for the concise and logical explanation!

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yes!   Here in Massachusetts it the residence of the parents that is the birth location.  Myself and siblings were all born in the city hospital but three of us were registered in the neighboring town of residence.  My daughter born in 1970's has two birth certificates one for Boston where she was actually born and one for the town we lived in.  I think you need to go by the rules of the place where you live (especially for finding other records) and explain things in the biography.

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Indeed  -- Never use the data on location of the "last place of residence" on SSDI as a place of death based solely on that. "Last place of residence" may be valid data of a person, but  it can easily not be a place of death. Find some other source for identifying a place of death.

You would not identify a cemetery as a place of death unless one actually dies there.

If you do not know, then do not guess.

Answer 2

Whatever is printed on your birth certificate.

Comments

Thank you!  I'll have to check it when I get home.  But I'm pretty sure that means I need to change my birth location.

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They will not change your birth location.  A birth certificate is a Federal document and it's illegal for them to put false information (that they are aware of) on said document as it is already in the system as to where your birth place is and isn't.

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I don't think he was saying he would need to change his Birth Certificate. I believe he meant he would need to change it here on his Wikitree profile.

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Thank you for clearing this up❣

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Exactly. I was born in a city hospital, and my birth certificate says I was born in that city, even though my parents lived in a smaller, neighboring municipality. In fact, on the long form of my birth certificate, it separately lists my parents' places of residence. Seperate fields from child's place of birth.

Answer 3

I try to always put this format  "Whitfield Co. Georgia" the county seems to help more than the town

Comments

I find it interesting that you say County is important.  I live in New Zealand, For the first 25 years of my life, the county for the house I lived in all that time had 6 changes to the county name, and yet not one of them appear in the drop down lists made available by WikiTree.  Also during that time the name of the road where the house was changed 3 times, and the Postal address changed 3 times, and none of them included the nearest town.  I have found on the drop down lists places of a Cemetery where there is no Cemetery of that name and in another instance a similar named cemetery, has the incorrect town listed when it was actually used (before being closed. My g.g.grandparents are buried there - with the death certificate for the head of the household showing that he was buried at another Cemetery.  It is rather frustrating when differing Family Tree software establish strict rules, which are inconsistent.

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Hi there

For a british person, I do wish the full name of the county was utiised rather than just 'co' used. In many countries we try not to confuse other people you see, and try always when it comes to important documentation like family history to write name places out in 'long hand' rather than short for those of us who may not be familiar with the american short hand 'way' of doing things. It also clears up a lot of unintentional mistakes or confusion along the way. Though I do respect this way.

Many thanks. And my apologies sorry if that sounds pedantic.

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The name county is not that purely defined by a british born and bred person.  It is clear that those in England, USA   and New Zealand use differing definitions of what a "county" actually is.  Therefore, we cannot enforce our definitions on other countries, just as they shouldn't enforce their definitions on us.  WikiTree does not provide the ability to allow users to use definitions which are different to just one group of people.  Names of county I lived in NZ changed at least 6  times in 25 years (some of the county names no longer exist). Also, where I was raised the postal address changed at least 4 times during that same period (and I lived in the same house all that time).

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Yes. I agree enforced, no.

Clearer for others, yes.

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Agreed.

Answer 4

Comments

like all other answers ... it depends!  For old ancestors, what it says on the birth certificate, if you can find it!  Or, what the internet says ... yikes!

For stuff I know personally about ... like my birth and my daughter's birth my grand kid's births, I put the hospital, city, county, state, etc.  I don't care what somebody wrote on a birth certificate.

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Was going to just put what was on my birth certificate.  But what I have a copy of might not be a birth certificate, but a record of birth from the hospital.   There's no raised seal on it from the town (like the ones for my kids.)  On the other hand it's got my foot prints stamped on it.  Kind of neat.

And now back to waiting to be confirmed so I can put in more details.

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The fact that some birth certificates reflect a different place of birth such as a residence would be helpful in some cases for the person to whom the birth certificate is issued.  Imagine being on vacation in Mexico with your expecting wife and lo and behold the child comes early.  The child would have to deal with ICE for the next decade if Mexico was written as his official birthplace.  I would still say this child is born in Mexico however, because it was!  Bob always makes sense!

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@Edward:

(I hope it's o.k. to reply here)

I had one of those, and so did both of my kids.

Up until recent years, the certificates from the hospital were considered valid (at least in some places), but are now only considered nice souvenirs.

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The internet is not always correct unless it has references attached. I have found many mistakes on other internet sites. Without documentation, they are only going by what someone else is saying.. That is why it is so important to list references and sources.

Answer 5

Mr. Greaves if you ever request an offical copy of a birth certificate you will be required to submit the hospital you were born at if you we born at home, on the side of the highway it will be the hospital that eather is closet to your birth or in the county you were born in. But your place of birth on your certificate will state what your parents wrote when asked by the hospital that recorded your birth. Hope that helps??..

Comments

My husbands birth certificate gives the location of the post office closest to the hospital he was norn at as his place of birth.  His legal “place of birth” was a tiny fish cannery, no longer in existence,  about 5 or 10 minutes away from the hospital by boat.  No road access, no trails either.

Answer 6

Your place of birth is the city in which you were born.  Your residence at birth is the location of your home at the time of your birth.  They might be the same but may not be.  If you were born on the way to the hospital, that is your place of birth (which could be another different city).  The same is true for place of death and residence at death.

Comments

It is the district of the city in which you were born.  IE.  I was born in Lidget Green; a borough of Bradford in Yorkshire, England.  Now it is UK, it was GB; it was Leeds Halifax and Queensbury but I went to Brighouse Girls Grammar School.

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Yes. This is my understanding of where you were born. The card my parents were given in the hospital where I was born cannot be used as proof of birth. The city where I was born is the place of birth. As a legal document, it must have a notarized seal.

Answer 7

Because this was already bumped .. my birthplace was the hospital of the town where my parents lived.  My younger brother's was the same, although a different hospital and different town from mine.  The other sibling (the one we usually refer to as "mother's only child")  was born in a town that was not the town where the family lived at the time; a place that no longer exists except as one GINORMOUS hole in the ground. 

I take a rather perverse delight in that. 

Comments

I love your answer, Melanie, and may I use it if the answer every comes up in a conversation?

The only difference is my sister and I were born in the same hospital while my "mother's only child" was born in another hospital ha no longer exists.

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fun comments...so I had to make my contribution!

I have 2 sisters, and delighted in reminding one of them that I'm our mother's "favorite son" to which she got flustered, and when she started to respond realized she had nothing she could say!  Sometimes I have to remind my mum that I'm her favorite son too, to which she usually just replies, "yeahhh."...wish I wouldda thought of this when I was younger!

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I came from a family of 3 girls and 1 boy.  My brother would always phone my office (small town) and when the receptionist would ask who was calling he would say "Her favorite brother".  One day the receptionist gave me heck and said that I shouldn't pick favorites in my family, which at first confused me until I remembered what he said.  After I told her, she was quite delighted that he would say that and always put him through to me as "your favorite brother calling".  LOL

Answer 8

I would definitely put down the county and town where you born, not where you grew up. For example I was born 50 miles north of where I grew up, because it was a larger hospital than the small town we lived in, and it was my Father's birthplace. Connects us to another area of the state.

Comments

Birth place = location of hospital.

Not only can it be a different TOWN from residence of parents at child's birth, or where child grew up, it could be in another COUNTY and STATE.

This leads to differences in recorded census locations for birthplace and often look wrong..Isn't genealogy fun?

Answer 9

I believe your place of birth is the town where the hospital at birth is located. My parents lived in Detroit but I was born in Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, MI. Therefore; Dearborn is my place of birth.

A for getting started on this wonderful hobby, I used many books in the beginning. One book is called "How to Find Your Family Roots, by William Latham. It is a thin book but has some good info on where to begin. The internet is a wonderful tool as well and something I did not have when I began my research in 1991-1992. I'd be happy to assist you.

Answer 10

Staying with the "it depends" theme:  What is being sought by people who read the profile.

If you want to know where a birth record might be sought, it would be in the county where the birth hospital is located.

If you want to know where the person lived immediately after birth, then the residence location is the right answer.

Unfortunately, we can rarely predict what readers may desire!

Answer 11

Same thing happens when someone dies in a hospital. The town of the hospital is used.

Comments

That leads sometimes to strange towns. I know the towns my grandmother was born in and died, but still I consider her an inhabitant of a third town, the town where she lived most of her life. And nothing will change that.

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Maybe a new field "resident of" with years?

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Actually this is a typical case for the biography.

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Try Aarton Senna.  He died at the track in Spa.  But he actually was DOA in some hopital in Spa.  Belgium?  The Low BAS.  Senna died at the track.  End of.

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Ayrton Senna did not die in Spa. He died in Imola. In the hospital of Bologna the docs confirmed he died.

Answer 12

A while ago I was looking at a copy of the family tree held by my relative and noticed that he had recorded my father and his sibling's place of birth as the residence of their parents (my grandparents) that was given on the birth certificate, rather than the hospitals that they were born in.

I've always thought that this was unusual. It's not correct for a start, and I don't see why there was a need to associate a place of birth with a "home" as my grandparents moved a lot in the years their children were born so there was no consistent "home" anyway. In fact, all but one child was born at the same hospital so it would be more consistent if they had their place of birth recorded as that.

Since then I've discovered that a lot of people record the place of a birth as a person's "home town" but I've never agreed with it.

Answer 13

I was born in Newark, Ohio. But my father was born in Newark, Ohio but he lived and calls Heath, Ohio his hometown which the two cities are next to each other.

Answer 14

I was born in Georgia but never lived there.  My family lived very close to the state line in Alabama.   Use the actual location of birth as listed on the birth certificate if one is available.   On Wikitree the biography is the place to explain our quirky details.

Comments

My paternal grandmother was actually home born in Chicago, IL, but her birth wasn't registered until the family got to their new home in Port Saint Lucie, FL. For years I thought my mother was born in the town (Rison, AR) that she called home, but found out that she was actually born at home in a community(Rowell) 15 miles south east of it. The U.S. Navy has my father listed as being born in Rison, AR, but he was actually born at home about  7 miles west of Rison in a community known as Tidwell, of Rison Township. The only register of his birth that I know of is in his mother's bible.

Answer 15

In the United Kingdom all births have to be registered with the registrar of the area where the birth took place.  Hospitals don't register births or provide documentation other than medical records.

In practice, the parents go to the registrar in the town where they live (if it was a home birth) or the town where the hospital was located (if it was a hospital birth).  Often these will be in the same town, but if not, then it is the town in which the birth happened.  They tell the registrar the name of the child, the date of birth, the names of the parents, and the address where the birth took place (their home address or the address of the hospital).  

Either way, home or hospital, current birth registrations are always registered in the registration area in which the actual birth took place, and full birth certificates show the full address where the birth occurred.

Comments

In 1918, when my mother was born in Kansas, my grandfather had to go register her birth at the town office (not the hospital she was born in but same town).  On his way there to register her, he met up with a friend and started chatting and by the time he got to the town office he forgot what my grandmother wanted her middle name to be so he just gave the first and last name on the registration form.  However he told my grandmother that he registered her exactly as he should.  When my mother needed her birth certificate and applied for it, she finally found out at 65 years of age that she did not have Annabelle as her middle name and she was very happy as her first name was Bessie.  She stated "thank goodness I never truly had 2 cows names!"  My grandfather just said "if you are happy, then I am happy and your mother was happy at the time" (grandma had already passed when mom found out).

Answer 16

As an adoptee, the hospital I was born in was in the city were ny mother was associated with the adoption agency, so the city I was born in became my home city. She was from a town 90 miles away and I did not find my family's home until 69 years later.

Once you get your DNA results, start with your closest relatives, but look for further away matches, I found alot of information from shared matches and hints. You'll find more dead ends than open ends, but just keep going, ut took me a year, but, I now have a younger brother, my mother, though past on, and an extended family.

Good luck

James

Comments

I was also adopted James and had my adoption records opened a few years ago and found my birth family. The parents had passed, but found an extensive family living all around me.  I still search for 3 siblings that most likely had closed adoptions like mine.  My birth date on the certified birth certificate is at least 2 months off, unfortunately making me older ;).   So I have to go with what is on it , as no one in my bio family knows an exact date.  Just  remembered an about date based on a siblings birth date.

I found my husband's bio dad , (mother only knew as "truck driver named Frank") in 2015 using DNA results.  He didn't meet his "dead" mother ,they had told him ,until the mid 70s. He didn't find out dad wasn't dad until the late '80s, even though that dad is the one on his birth certificate.  He has a madrid of half and step relationships.  His birth father was married to three women at once! Plus girlfriend, his mother....may be more. Husband's birth father, turns out, also did not know his birth father, and the truth came out from  family who knew and DNA matches. I have not attempted yet a tree for him yet !  A Wiki biography and connect nightmare!

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Thank you Loretta, the more doors you open, the more hallways and doors you find, and there is always a pile of keys laying on the floor beckoning you to try them all, only time and turning them will tell. Quiting means the pile wins.

James

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So true, James :)  Happy New Year !

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Thank you again, and a very happy and informative New Year.

James

Answer 17

Hello,

I don't know if you will see this, as you asked your question 5 years ago, but if you are still interested in geneology, an excellent resource is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, as well as familysearch.org. You can look up the Family History Library online and set up a free family search account. There is contact information under the Help tab if you need it. This is the world's largest geneological library. It is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but anyone, member or not, is welcome to use this free resource.

Comments

You could go to your public library, find the genealogy section.  They may have ancestry.com which you can used on line.  At this time my library allows access to ancestry.com from home because of the pandemic.  But not all libraries allow this.  Remote access will probably go away some time in the future.

Answer 18

In the case of all records you want to record the place the event took place according to the document.  If there is a need to clarify or correct the record you should do so through comments/notation.

Answer 19

All of us were born at home. The birth certificate lists the county and voting precinct as the place of birth.

Answer 20

To start with your genealogy is easy.  You start by choosing how you want to do the research.  The internet has made it much easier than when my dad was writing back and forth to France.  Chose which genealogy site you want and start with yourself and your parents.  Try to put in as many members with as much information as you can remember.  Eventually they will start sending you suggestions, cencer reports, etc.  Just use caution.  If it doesn't sound or look right, don't put it.  1 mistake can bring you right back to starting all over.