A Marriage and Two Births

Great Aunt Mary (Danko) Golinski was married in 1915 and she had several children, including Victoria and John.

Mary’s marriage record and the birth record for her first child, Victoria, were recorded in a ledger, rather than on standardized marriage and birth certificates .  The birth of Mary’s son John, however, was recorded on a standard certificate .  When I requested copies of these three documents, I was somewhat disappointed by the documents I received for Mary’s marriage and Victoria’s birth because I received transcriptions rather than photocopies of the original records.

Mary’s marriage record arrived as a Copy of Record of Marriage for Paul Golinski and Mary Danko and contained several misspellings and a couple of crossed out entries .  The entries that appear to be transcription errors are:

• The name of the groom’s father is recorded as Gan Golinski, but should be Jan Golinski
• The name of the groom’s mother is recorded as Mary Darasz, but should be Mary Daraz
• The name of the bride’s mother is recorded as Agnes Sousa, but should be Agnes Sowa
• The name of the bride’s father is recorded as Joseph Jacob Danko, apparently to correct an error during transcription since the father’s name was Jacob Danko
• The form used to record the transcription was outdated, since it assumed that the document would be recorded in the 20th century and included the preprinted year 19__, which had to be crossed out to write in the correct year 2002

The marriage record reports Mary’s age at the time of the marriage as 28 years on October 4, 1915, indicating that Mary was born in 1886 or 1887.

The birth of Mary’s first child, Victoria, is reported as a Copy of Record of Birth for Victoria Golinski .  This document also contained an apparent transcription error:

• Mary’s maiden name is reported as Dauleo, but should be Danko

The transcription unfortunately doesn’t include the parents’ dates of birth.

The Return of a Birth for John Golinski is more complete than that for Victoria, and is the original record rather than a transcription .  Still, this document includes two entries that were apparently erased and typed over:

• The birthplaces of both the father and mother were originally entered as Poland, but were corrected to read Austria Poland

The record does, however, show that Mary was 33 years old when John was born on Jan. 2, 1922, indicating that Mary was born between 1888 and 1889.

Let me summarize the information I have on Mary’s date of birth:

• Marianna’s Birth and Baptismal Record, a Church Record from Poland, shows that her birth date was January 12, 1884
• Marjanna’s Hamburg Passenger Record, shows that she was 25 years old in 1909, indicating that she was born in 1883-1884
• Marianna’s Passenger Arrival List, shows that she was 25 years old when she arrived at Ellis Island on June 26, 1909 and indicating that she was born in 1883-1884
• The Copy of Record of Marriage shows that she was 28 years old on October 4, 1915, indicating that she was born in 1886-1887
• The Copy of Record of Birth for Mary’s daughter Victoria does not show Mary’s age or date of birth
• The Return of a Birth for Mary’s son John shows that Mary was 33 years old on January 2, 1922, indicating that she was born in 1888-1889
• Mary’s SS-5 Application for Social Security Account and Tax Number shows that she was born on March 12, 1887
• The Social Security Death Index shows that Mary was born on March 12, 1887
• Information from Mary’s daughter Fran, indicated that Mary was born on March 12, 1887
• The Massachusetts Death Index does not show Mary’s birth date
• Mary’s Cemetery Burial Record shows that Mary was born in about 1886-1887
• Mary’s Gravestone Epitaph shows that Mary was born in 1887

So, where does all this lead me?  My grandfather’s sister, Marianna, was born on January 12, 1884, which is consistent with records up through her immigration to the United States .  My grandfather’s sister, Mary, was born on March 12, 1887, which is consistent with records after her immigration into the United States (with the exception of the Return of John’s Birth, which suggests she was born in 1888-1889).

Are Marianna and Mary the same person?  If so, why are there two apparently different birth dates?  If Marianna and Mary are different people, they must be sisters, but there is no evidence for two sisters named Marianna Danko and Mary Danko .  Perhaps Mary changed her birth date after her arrival in America .  I’d like to find a Census Record and other records for Mary between the time she arrived in America in 1909 and the time she was married in 1915, but finding those records will take some additional research.

Copyright © 2006 by Stephen J. Danko