4 ms·
People weren't as concerned with record keeping back then, these things were just gonna grow mold and feed mice in a drawer somewhere unless someone was trying
by jrumbut 4y ago
People weren't as concerned with record keeping back then, these things were just gonna grow mold and feed mice in a drawer somewhere unless someone was trying to annul a marriage (for consanguinity) or argue over an inheritance.
Then the modern administrative state sprang up very fast and the generation born in the late 19th or early 20th century was caught in the middle.
- steveBK123 4y agoAnd in many areas of Europe the official papers for birth, death and marriage were held by churches for a long time before being taken over by the state. On the other side of my family, a family member made a records request re: ancestor born say around 1880 and the official government response was that the papers had been at a church long burned down and paperwork lost.
- jamiek88 4y agoA huge amount of documentation was lost in WW2 as well.