2024 52 Ancestors: Changing Names - Grandfather Foltz

During my grandfather's lifetime, in 1936, social security numbers were invented by the government in order to keep track of employment wages and histories of United States workers in an effort to determine their entitlement to benefits out of the social security fund.

Harry Foltz, Portland, Oregon, 1930.

This new line of bureaucratic red tape may have been the reason my grandfather and his mother went on the hunt for a record of his birth. The same issue appeared to crop up when it was time to apply for a passport as well.

Although they were both certain he was born 3 February 1910 on their homestead in Fort Rock, Oregon, there was no extant documentation claiming so. 

Oregon State Board of Health, "Birth Record Application," 8 Mar 1958.

Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, copy of 1920 U.S. federal census enumeration details for Foltz, Harry A., 27 Aug 1942.

His mother had to write up a deposition testifying to the details of his and his siblings' births in order for him to obtain a Delayed Birth Certificate.

Myrtle Foltz Haley, "Affidavit of Birth Personal and Statistical Particulars," 25 Aug 1942.

Department of State Passport Office, "Birth Affidavit," 4 Mar 1968.

Myrtle M. Foltz, Foltz family birth and death dates and places, 1942.

That wasn't too uncommon during the mid 1900s, as many home births had previously gone unrecorded until there was reason to file them officially with the government. But what was interesting about my grandfather's case was the discrepancy in his given name.

Treasury Department Internal Revenue Service, "U.S. Social Security Act Application for Account Number," 3 Dec 1936, Ora Harry Foltz, Pasadena, California.

He always chose to go by Harry. It had also been the nickname of his uncle, Benjamin Harrison "Harry" Foltz. And just like his uncle, his first given name wasn't Harrison either! His formal birth name was actually Ora Harrison Foltz, as deposed by his mother. Though she seemed to concede with him going by Harry Ora Foltz.

So far I've found no other men (or women) by the name of Ora in the family tree, so it remains a mystery what led Harry's parents to choose it. And clearly, Harry had no interest in honoring their wishes. It's unclear whether he filed paperwork in court to have it officially changed, but his passport, which was issued years later, did record him as Harry Ora Foltz, so one way or another, he made his choice official.

Harry Ora Foltz, passport book, 27 Jul 1968.