Affidavit From a Midwife... A Favorite Find

Wonder how many she wrote?

Genealogy Matters Storyteller Tuesday Challenge: FAVORITE FIND

I started researching my family as a teenager, in the early 1980s, and my maternal grandpa held a special draw for me. Like everyone recommended, I started my research at home, in my Pappy’s suitcase. In his later years, he lived out of this suitcase, travelling to visit each of his twelve adult children monthly. It contained all he left us, many wonderful papers, photographs and heirloom items. A favorite find to this day remains in my collection: his midwife’s affidavit.

The story goes that in early 1940, my grandfather Walter Edward Granath’s company required employees to apply for a social security card. In order to do so, he had to prove his birth date. He was born in a tiny mining town in 1891 in Colorado, where birth registrations weren’t required until 1908. So, naturally, he reached out to the town midwife (!!!) and she wrote this for him. A fun fact that it doesn’t mention is that she was also best friend to his mother for all of their lives. That probably explains how she remembers his birth forty-nine years later! Does it get any better than this? :)