The Many Birth Years of Harold White (1885?-1960)

Harold Blaine White, my maternal grandmother's third husband, though not my grandfather, was born in Indiana.   The intrigue has been in trying to determine in what year he was born.  Sources range from 1880 to 1887.   

I first found Harold White in this investigation in the 1900 census, enumerated at age 15 in his father's household, a farm in Kosciusko County, Indiana.[1]  His birth month and year are given as April 1885.  The enumeration day was 18 June 1900, so his birthday had already passed.  This information is internally consistent. 

Next time Harold White shows up is with a stated age of 21 on 24 November 1905, when he took out a marriage license with 18-year-old Blanch Stockmyer in Kosciusko County. [2]  He gives his birth date as 26 April 1884.  In Indiana at that time, the age for a male to marry without parental consent was 21.  The age for a female to marry without consent was 18.  If Harold White was actually born in 1885 rather than 1884, he would have been 20 years old rather than 21, and would have had to obtain his father's consent.  It is likely that he did not want to, or could not, obtain such consent, so he lied about his age. 

On 13 May 1912, Harold and Cora White (his second wife), were presented with a new son, Eugene, by the noble stork.[3]  Harold's age appears as 25, making his birth year 1887.  The informant is not named on the birth certificate, but it is likely that the informant was the mother, whose age is listed as 18.  She may have been unclear as to her husband's actual age or his birth year.  The reporting of Harold's age on this child's birth certificate in 1912 is in direct conflict with his marriage license application in 1905, on which he gave his birth year as 1884, probably so he could present himself as being 21, of legal age to marry without parental consent.  It also conflicts with the 1930 census, detailed below, on which he is recorded with an age at first marriage of 25, a figure which is at odds with the 1905 marriage information. [See further discussion below, at 1930 census.]

A daughter, Violet, was born to Harold and Cora 13 December 1913.[4]  Harold's age is shown to be 27, which would yield a birth year of 1886.  Cora's age is given as 20.  Again, the mother was probably the informant on this information.

Maxine, the third child of the Whites was born 18 April 1916.[5]  On this registration, Harold's age is 30 and Cora's is 23.  The birth took place before Harold's birthday that year, making him 31 on that birthday, so his birth year comes out to 1885.  Cora may have been the informant.

Harold White did his patriotic duty on 12 September 1918, and registered for the draft.[6]  He gave his age as 33, and his birth date as 26 April 1885.  He would have been asked by the draft board member to answer the questions on the registration, so the information here came from Harold himself.  There is no conflict between the date of the event and Harold's birth year as stated.

Harold White has not yet been found in the 1910 or 1920 censuses.

The information in the 1930 census on Harold White's age and the age given for his first marriage, 25, provides an internal inconsistency, and a conflict with other records, most notably his 1905 marriage license application.[7]  In the 1930 census, Harold's age is given as 43.  The enumeration date was 9 April, before Harold's birthday, so at that birthday, he would have been 44.  This leaves us with 1886 as his birth year.  This is one of only two documents among those so far found that suggest 1886 as his birth year, though neither of them specifically state that it was.  The other document leading to 1886 as Harold's birth year, though not stating it outright, is the birth certificate of the couple's daughter Violet.  This might indicate an informant other than Harold himself.  Likewise, the calculation of his age at first marriage being 25, subtracted from his marriage year of 1905, draw us to 1880 as his birth year.  Compared to all the other documents so far found, this year is an outlier, way out of line with the rest of the information at present known.  This, too, seems to indicate that the informant on this census was someone other than Harold White.

For the 1940 census, enumerators were instructed to place an "X" in a circle next to the name of the informant for a household, if a member of the household was the informant for a particular household or family (as a household could include more than one family).  The enumerator for the section of the census in which Harold White was enumerated in 1940 did not place that mark on any of the households he enumerated.  It would be a stretch to imagine that, for pages and pages of census information, all the informants had been other than household or family members.  Thus, the information recorded by this particular enumerator is no more reliable than that on any other census in any other year.

 Harold's age is recorded on the 1940 census as 54.[8]  The enumeration day was 9 April, before Harold's birthday that year, so he was 55 on that birthday, 26 April.  That would point to 1885 as his birth year.  

On 27 April 1942, Harold White registered for the World War II draft.[9]  This registration date was one day after his birthday, 26 April, and he gave his age as 55.  The resulting calculation yields a birth year of 1887.  

Harold White married my twice-widowed grandmother, Ruth [Nave] Reed Pennington, in  August of 1932.[10]  On the marriage license, he gives his birth date as 26 April 1885.

On the 1950 census, the enumerator failed to record the enumeration date.[11]  However, moving back through the census sheets taken by this enumerator, Nellie Reed, shows her beginning her enumerations on 23 May.  Harold White's age is stated as 65, and as the census was taken on him after his birthday, his birth year comes out to 1885.

Finally, there is his death certificate.[12] Harold died 25 December 1960, in an institutional setting.  No informant is named on his death certificate.  Only his birth year is given: 1885.  He was 75 years old.  

So, in what year was Harold White born?

1880 - Only one document leads by inference to this outlying year.  The 1930 census states his age at first marriage as 25.  Subtracting 25 years from the year of first marriage, 1905, yields 1880.  However, his first marriage took place on 24 November 1905, and he reported his age at that time as 21, though this may have been a falsification to avoid having to ask for his father's permission to marry.  By its direct conflict with the 1905 marriage license and the fact that it is out of the range of the other possible birth years, 1880 does not appear to be a good candidate for Harold's birth year.

1884 - Harold's stated birth date on the 1905 marriage license application is 26 April 1884.  Nowhere else is the year 1884 stated or implied to be his birth year.  This single appearance of that possible birth year and the likelihood that Harold lied about his age in 1905 to get around needing parental permission to marry make it unlikely that Harold was born in 1884.

1885 -  If we go by the old standard of "preponderance of evidence," 1885 wins hands down as Harold's birth year.  This birth year is supported by the 1900 census, the birth certificate of his daughter Maxine, Harold's World War I draft registration, the 1940 census, his application to marry Ruth Pennington, the 1950 census, and his death certificate, though this last document is of highly questionable reliability.  Seven documents out of the twelve so far discovered favor 1885, but that does not yet put the lock on it because the other contenders for Harold's birth year cannot be completely disproven.

1886 - Support for this possible birth year is found in Harold's daughter  Maxine's birth certificate, and the 1930 census.  That is only two of the twelve documents surveyed.  1886 is less likely to be Harold's birth year than is 1885.

1887 - The year 1887 shows up or can be inferred from Harold's son Eugene's birth certificate, and the World War II draft.  1887 is also less likely than 1885 to be Harold's birth year.

So we are left with no more than the strong possibility that Harold was born in 1885 rather than any of the other suggested birth years.  The search continues for more documents, and it is possible that the best we can hope for is to be able to say with a modicum of qualified assurance that Harold White was born in 1885.

There is one consistent element in this whole confusion:  Those documents that make definite birth date statements all agree on one thing:  Harold was born on 26 April of whatever year the documents may mention or suggest.

NOTES:

[1] Census Place: Troy, Whitley, Indiana; Roll: 414; Page: 8; Enumeration District: 0114; FHL microfilm: 1240414.  Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, ED 114, Sheet 8, Dwelling 172, Family 174.

[2]  "Indiana Marriages, 1811-2019," database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GPXX-938Z?cc=1410397&wc=Q8SH-5TM%3A962985201%2C963051301 : 5 February 2016), Kosciusko > 1905-1906 Volume N > image 86 of 223; Indiana Commission on Public Records, Indianapolis.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[3]  Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Birth; Year: 1912; Roll: 002. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_358007-01488?pId=155049355.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[4] Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Birth; Year: 1913; Roll: 002.  Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_357402-02175?pId=2058418. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[5] Indiana, Birth Certificates, 1907-1940, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, Indiana; Births; Year: 1916; Roll: 003.  Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60871/images/40474_357898-00914?pId=3178908. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[6]  "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7H1X-W9T2 : 29 December 2021), Harold Blaine White, 1917-1918.

[7]  Ancestry.com, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, ED 9-14, sheet 11B, Dwelling 304, Family 333.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4584674_00740?pId=117850519. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[8]   Ancestry.com, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, Sheet 4A, Household #78. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/M-T0627-01030-00378?pId=55811125 (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[9] U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942. The National Archives At St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group Title: Records of the Selective Service System; Record Group Number: 147. Ancestry.com, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1002/images/2wwii_2371837-4488?pId=8813559.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[10]   Newspapers.com - The South Bend Tribune - 14 Aug 1942 - Page 29.  Notice of marriage license application, Harold White and Ruth Pennington.  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118136363/marriage-of-white-pennln/?xid=637 .  (accessed 15 November 2023).  [Actual marriage record not located yet.]

[11]  Ancestry.com.  United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: Tippecanoe, Kosciusko.  ED 43-24, Sheet 49 (corrected from 121),  Dwelling # 581, Family 156.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/62308/images/43290879-Indiana-230908-0051?pId=131170156.  (accessed 15 November 2023.)

[12]  Ancestry.com. Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011, Indiana Archives and Records Administration; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Death Certificates; Year: 1960; Roll: 15.  https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/60716/images/44494_350865-00496?pId=1728451. (accessed 15 November 2023.)

No calculators were harmed in the creation of this blog.  However, one did get a bit testy after the 753rd calculation.