My grandfather SHERMAN LINN SHAW II (1912-1973) was born at home in Lee Center on 17 May 1912. Mrs. Nellie Scheffler was the nurse who attended at his birth, which was officially reported the next day, 18 May 1912, by Dr. Charles A. Zeigler of Amboy. Dr. Zeigler's report was then filed with Lee County Clerk W. C. Thompson on 1 June 1912. Thirty years later, on 24 July 1942, my grandfather acquired a certified copy of his birth record from Deputy Lee County Clerk Pauline B. Harding. That certified copy is reproduced below. I surmise that my grandfather had to obtain this copy of his birth record when he enlisted in the Illinois State Militia during World War II.
Besides the official report filed with the Lee County Clerk, my grandfather's birth was also privately recorded in a little "Victorian-style" blue-colored baby book for the preservation of memories and the marking of milestones of a child's early years. However, my great-grandmother Grace didn't make much progress in writing memories of my grandfather's infancy -- in fact, though she wrote my grandfather's date of birth in the book, she didn't even write his name in the book -- but she did record that the physician at the birth was "Dr. Zeigler" and that the nurse in attendance was "Mrs. Nellie Scheffler." She also recorded my grandfather's weight at birth as 9 pounds -- but she added a question mark, showing that some time had passed following the birth before she acquired the baby book, and so she wasn't sure how much he had weighed when he was born. My great-grandmother then proceeded to record my grandfather's weight at one month of age as 10 1/2 pounds, at two months as 12 pounds, at three months as 13 1/2 pounds, and at four months of age as 14 pounds. Besides those entries, the only other thing she wrote in the book is the date my grandfather got his "short clothes" -- 4 July 1912.
The pages of the baby book that have writing on them are reproduced here:
Return to Ten Generations of the Shaw Family (Part Seven)