Week #1 - FIRST

This is my FIRST post on this blog. I'm 13 weeks behind already. This is not going to be easy to have to post 13 themes in one week, but here goes. I have to play catch up.

FIRST:

The FIRST document I received, when I FIRST became interested in my family history in 1987, was my mother's birth record from New Jersey. Boy, was I ever excited to see it. I ran up and down the dock at the Indian River Marina in Vero Beach, Florida looking for a boater friend to show it to. She was as excited as I was.

Ottilie Lieberknecht's Birth Record

It reads: Name of Child: Ottille.      Sex: Female       Color: White                                    

Date of Birth: Sept 20, 1908

Place of Birth: 243 Montgomery St., J. C. (Jersey City)

Name of Father: Wm C. Leib. Birthplace: US

Maiden Name of Mother: Florence Wenzel. Birthplace: US

Age of Father: 39 yr.  Age of Mother: 25 yrs

Occupation of Father: Printer. Occupation of Mother: H.W.

Number of Children in all by the Marriage: two. Number of Children Living: one.

"Name and Address of Professional Attendant in Own Handwriting: "James G Enright M.D.What I found interesting was that it said there had been two children but only one was living.  My mother had written in my baby book that she named me after her dead sister, Dorothy. So, I would guess that there may be a birth and death record for that dead baby. My mother was the FIRST living child of this couple but not the FIRST child born to this couple.

We had been spending the hot summer in a rented house in Vero Beach, Florida while husband Chester finished writing his latest legal thriller. When I received the birth record, we were back living on our boat Tempest since the weather was cooler. We were waiting for good weather to go up the Intracoastal Waterway and end up in Annapolis, Maryland for a while on our way to Maine. I was looking forward to researching in the National Archives in Washington, DC. What could I find there?