By bbbunny |

A few months ago I discovered on Family Search a civil death record from Mexico that I used to establish a relative's death. Same date of birth reflected on his baptism record, same parents, and the name of one of his (many) wives as "conyuge." It showed his death in Mexico, at a home in the town of his birth, along with the name and license number for the attending physician, and the physician's address.

Yesterday, however, I was told that the ancestor had actually died and was buried in Southern California.

I was shown a Social Security Death Registry entry that had a date of birth which had been used as an alternate in many instances by this relative (4 years earlier than his baptism record). The date of death was 4 years prior to the date on the Mexican record.

My first thought was that we had two individuals, born years apart, given the same name by their parents. I've had that occur before in my tree. But this individual has a somewhat historic profile. He and his family have been written about extensively, and there is no mention of a second child with the same name.

In the past I have seen Civil Registrations for deaths that occurred in the US when the body was returned to Mexico for interment, but there is no mention of that in this case.

Any ideas on what may have occurred?

Annette Avila Nunez
bbbunny@aol.com

I think we need to see both records to determine which is correct.

My grandmother’s family was from Juarez, Chih, but she was born in Mesilla, NM, in 1903; her mother didn’t register her birth in the Mexican civil registry until 1917, and that’s the year it gives as her birth. I figured it was a clerical error, but I’ve seen it happen in other cases.

My grandfather was born in Mexico, but he died in the US; his SS death registry, and even his tombstone, gave his birthdate as 4 Jul 1885, but he was actually born 6 Jul 1883. I’ve seen other cases of wrong birthdates given for Mexicans who migrated to the US.

That said, if everything else matches up - his known birthplace, the names of his parents, etc, then it’s likely the same person. In the pre-Information Age (before computers & internet), discrepancies were more common, especially if the person was born or died abroad.

Good luck!
Manny Diez Hermosillo

In Mexico when you need to file an "acta de defuncion", the first paper that is require is the attending physician certificate that the person actually died. After that you need witnesses not related to the deseased, for the event.
To me it is unlikely that they original certificate from Mexico had the name of the attending physician, they wouldn't require that to bring the body from the US. They would have used the attending physician certificate from the US.
Are you talking about a very common last name??
I hope this helps

sus

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