Hi Reg,

Thanks for replying and for heads up on the reference book.

I was in haste when typing this orginal message (I type faster then I think). Basically, in the mid 1980's my grandmother, who is the daughter of Ellsworth, wrote away to NYC government office in attempts to find his birth record. I do not know what specific office she wrote to, but the reply came that for a range of those specific years there were documents for Brooklyn that had been lost to a fire. Unfortunately back then, I was all of 8 years old and not interested in genealogy and didn't really care about it. I'm now 28, and have been trying to track this certificate down for about 3 years now. My grandmother is still alive but is 91 and has lost all long term memory and suffers from dementia. She doesn't remember writing and doesn't even remember her father much.

I have sent away for searches to the Department of Health in NYC recently for the years 1881, 1882, 1883 and have been sent back a letter stating there is no birth record in his name (or a variant spelling of Jamieson) listed.

Using some recent census information, I have been able to identify his father and mother (Issac and Ann Jamieson) and are now trying to find records of them in NY census.

Appreciate you help and guidance. Thank you!
MaryEllen