This is a listing of births that appear in Omaha area newspapers at the W. Dale Clark library in Omaha. They are pulled from newspapers as we extract obits for our OmahaObits.wordpress.com web site. In many instances, there is no indication what the person’s name was going to be, but it is one way of locating the possibility of a child that may have been born and died between census records. In some instances, the names are taken from early Omaha birth certificates collected prior to 1910 when it became state mandated to collect such information. Registration of births in that time period was not mandatory.
Births may have occurred in Omaha for families living outside Douglas county, including from Iowa, because this is where the mother chose to see the Dr. It’s worth checking the list periodically. We also include births listed that occurred in Sarpy county, NE or Pottawattamie county, IA. Newspaper reported births do not reflect the actual birth date, as in talking to people who have found babies in the listing say that the newspapers may have been two or three weeks later than the actual birth date in modern papers, though early newspapers are often closer to the actual date.
Obtaining birth records from the state of Nebraska is difficult if you are not immediately related. The county clerical staff has been known to refer patrons to the library for copies in the pre-mandatory time period as the library has copies of all that were issued. There are three reels with registered births for Omaha/South Omaha, so there are a lot of names of parents there. Not all of the infants’ names are registered on their birth certificate. We have not been able to deterimine how far into the county this births extend. Some births appear in the gossip columns and have no connection with any kind of official record. Genealogists however, have learned to take clues wherever they can find them.
If you are interested in a copy of the entry that a notice appears in or an indexed birth certificate, you can send $5 to G.O.G.S., PO Box 4011, Omaha, NE 68104. We hope eventually to have all of the names indexed here on the site, and we will also add names from the paper that show up as we index obits.
Just so you know what to expect: birth registrations in the paper usually give little more than is already here in the index other than the household address, or the fact that the birth may have occurred at a hospital. Birth certificate records will ONLY be available in the foreseeable future to the date the state of Nebraska began mandatory birth registration in 1910. For certificates later than that you must contact the county courthouse or the Nebraska State Vital Statistics office.
Happy hunting.
Visit our OmahaObits and Omahamarriages sites as well as the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society web sites, also on wordpress.com.
Honorary midwives: the G.O.G.S. members: Karen, Karen, Frankie and a friend Nancy.
Help is welcomed.
Omaha NE Births 