My Great Grandfather, George Osias LeBlanc, went through life using the birth-date of 9 April 1870. Was this really the correct date of birth?
The first record of George using the birth year of 1870 is on the 1880 census of Oswego New York. Subsequent United States census for the years of 1910-1940 give his birth year as "1870", based on his stated age, and the 1900 United States census of Spencer Twp Minnesota lists his birth more specifically as "Apr 1870". To lend further credence to the 1870 birth are George's headstone and death certificate.
George was the ninth or tenth child of thirteen or fourteen siblings born and baptized in Saint-Anicet Quebec. In a Catholic Parish where all vital records where recorded, there is no baptism for George. Searching for George's birth and baptism everywhere throughout Canada and the United States has produced no birth record.
In Saint-Anicet, where George should have been baptised, I found a baptism of 19 April 1869 for a supposedly unknown sibling named "Joseph Jean Baptiste". The only mention of this name "Joseph" in the family is at his baptism. The name of "Joseph Jean Baptiste", beginning with the 1871 census of Saint-Anicet, seems to have disappeared. A search of all parish records in Canada and the United States for a death of an individual by this name has come up empty.
I believe "George" and "Joseph Jean Baptiste" are possibly the same person.
1. Their birth dates are similar: 9 April and 19 April.
2. The 1871 census of Saint-Anicet Quebec lists George under the name of "Ozais" age 2. (George Osias would have been only 1 year old if born in 1870, while the age of 2 would fit the age of the Joseph born in 1869)
3. George's siblings were all born at least 15 months apart, yet for George to have been born in April 1870, he would have been only 12 months after his previous sibling and 9 months before his next sibling. While it is medically possible for George to fit in between the siblings, it is highly unlikely.
George's correct birth date is a mystery that may never be proved. Whatever his real birth date, he lived a long eventful life to the age of Seventy-Nine or Eighty years old.
