Little Alice Webster's Birth Record

In a previous post I shared the exciting news that I had discovered the birth record of Alice Webster, the youngest child of my maternal great-grandparents, Frederick Emory Webster and Esther Matus Villatoro.

My readers may remember that I refer to Frederick Emory Webster as "The Traveling Dentist" here on my blog. He practiced dentistry in three countries: The United States of America, Mexico, and Brazil. Because of his travels, it was challenging to know where to look for vital records for his family. I'm thankful for the recent hint on FamilySearch that led me to Frederick and Esther's marriage record.

Their marriage did not take place at the time or place I would have expected. Because they were married in Curitiba, Brazil, I decided to do some research in that locality and was able to find the birth records for their two youngest children, Alice and Eugene. Yay!

Here is Alice's birth record.¹ In this birth record I learned that her actual name was Alicia Bell Webster.

Frederick signed his name on the second page of the document. It's always fun to see an ancestor's signature.

I highlighted the names of Frederick, Esther, Alicia Bell, and the grandparents, Ebenezer and Cynthia Webster, and Raymundo Matus (should be Raymunda). The inclusion of the grandparents' names provides evidence that this birth record is for my Frederick and Esther's daughter, and not another Frederick and Esther's daughter. It's so great and helpful when grandparents are named on documents.

Because I do not speak Portuguese, I used Google Translate to help me understand this birth record. I am not seeing an actual birth date on the record, but FamilySearch states that Alicia's birth date was 10 May 1918. If Google Translate is correct, it looks like Frederick reported his daughter's birth on 11 May 1918.

Sadly, Alicia Bell did not live to adulthood. I am glad to finally have her birth record, but I still do not have her death record. I'm also glad I was able to find the birth record of Alicia's brother, Eugene. I will share Eugene's birth record in a future post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2021 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved

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1 "Brasil, Paraná, Registro Civil, 1852-1996," database with images, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9396-Q699-B4 : accessed 20 June 2021), certificate image, Alicia Bell Webster, 10 May 1918, no. 42988; citing Corregedor Geral da Justicia da Paraná (Paraná General Justice Office), Curitiba.^↩

My Ancestors' Signatures

In my previous post, I shared the news that the marriage record of my maternal great-grandparents, Frederick Emory Webster and Esther Matus Villatoro, included their signatures. It's so fun to see the signatures of ancestors on documents. I have already seen Frederick's signature on other documents, but I don't think I've ever seen Esther's signature before. So, her marriage record is not only valuable from the standpoint of the information it contains, but also because it includes her signature.

In my post about their marriage record, I also said that I needed to add Esther's signature to my blog's "My Ancestors' Signatures page. I have now done that. On that page I have signatures of other ancestors including the signature of my 6th great-grandfather, John Waterman. His signature was from his Last Will and Testament dated 3 January 1742/3 when he was about seventy years of age. If you would like to check out the "My Ancestors' Signatures" page on my blog, click HERE, or you can just go to my blog's home page and click on the "My Ancestors' Signatures" tab.

Seeing the signatures of our ancestors on documents is such a treat. Do you collect your ancestors' signatures?

Thanks for stopping by!

Jana

© 2021 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved