PA Time Project
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Pennsylvania
Hospital Birth Records and How Birth Times are Recorded
In Pennsylvania, prior to April 12, 1972, there was a
regulation that all birth times be recorded as Standard Time regardless
of the time of year in which the birth occurred. This meant that births that
occurred during Daylight Savings Time had to be recorded as Standard Time. Many hospitals followed this regulation and some did not.
Because this regulation is not widely known and there is no available
written source to obtain this information, astrologers are calculating many
incorrect charts.
I am compiling a list of Pennsylvania hospitals for
which I have firm documentation, as to how a particular hospital documented
birth times. I am seeking
information that anybody may have regarding Pennsylvania hospitals.
Check your hospital birth records - yours, your
children’s, your friends’, and your clients’.
Some hospitals have written on their Birth Records the letters ‘DST’
(Daylight Savings Time) or ‘EST’ (Eastern Standard Time) to indicate whether
or not they were following the law. Other
sources for this information are maternity ward nurses - particularly those who
were working in the maternity ward prior to 1972, medical records personnel, or
others who are associated with and knowledgeable about a particular hospital’s
policy.
If you have any information about a particular hospital, please email me at amanda@amandaowen.com
Pennsylvania has recently changed the process through
which you can obtain your birth information. You used to be able to do this
through a phone call. Although this is not possible anymore, a website has been
set up so you do not have to go through the lengthy process of going through the
mail. Although you can request the information that way. For all information
about ordering by snail mail, fax, or online go here:
Division of Vital Records This phone # has a recording that can
direct you to a couple of places plus the website: 724-656-3100. The cost is $4 for the Record and a $7 charge to your credit card.
Important note: The problem with online ordering is that I can't find a place where you can make
the specific request for a time of birth. Since Pennsylvania doesn't put the
time of birth on the birth certificate, online ordering may only be helpful if
you are ordering your birth certificate without a need for the birth time.
I'll look into it. For on-line ordering, go here:
On-line ordering
You will need to have your credit card.
Important! You must let them know that you want the time of birth. Pennsylvania does not put the time of birth on the birth certificate.
You can get
information for all states here: http://www.vitalrec.com
As more information becomes available, it seems clear that
the majority of hospitals recorded births as EST all year around prior to 1972.
If you have a birth time from a hospital, you are better off assuming it
is an EST birth time. I will
continue to keep you updated.
Thank you so much to all who have supplied me with birth
time information.
If anyone has sent me information that does not appear
below, please re-contact me. Thanks!
Hospitals
in Pennsylvania confirmed as recording birth times as Eastern Standard Time
(EST) throughout the year prior to April 12, 1972
Allentown Osteopathic Hospital
Allentown, Lehigh County
AFL-CIO
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
(now called Kennedy Hospital)
Bryn Mawr Hospital
Bryn Mawr, Montgomery County
Butler
Hospital
Butler, Butler County
Charleroi-Monessen
Hospital
Charleroi, Washington County
(Monongahela Valley (Mon Valley) Hospital was built to replace the Char/Mon
Hospital.)
Chester
County Hospital
West Chester, Chester County
Chestnut
Hill Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Delaware
Valley Medical Center
Bristol, Bucks County
Fitzgerald
Mercy Hospital
Darby, Delaware County
Frankford Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Germantown
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Jefferson
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Lancaster
General Hospital
Lancaster, Lancaster County
(A woman in Medical Records reports that the hospital continued to use EST all
year around for approximately a year after they did not have to do so any more,
which means that some births in 1973 may recorded as EST even during EDT).
Lankenau
Hospital
Wynnewood, Montgomery County
(Some people report this hospital as being in Philadelphia because it is on the
dividing line between Wynnewood and Philadelphia)
Magee
Hospital
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County (also called Magee Women’s Hospital)
*Important - Although this hospital seemed to have had a
general policy to write times as standard time - this hospital also has some
birth times listed as DST for daylight savings time. Order the hospital birth
record to be sure. You can find out how above.
Mercy
Hospital
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County
Mercy Hospital Scranton, Lackawanna County
Misericordia
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Mercy
Haverford Hospital
Havertown, Delaware County
Methodist
Episcopal Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Nazareth
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Osteopathic Hospital Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Phoenixville Hospital Phoenixville, Chester County
Poly Clinic Harrisburg, Dauphin County
Reading Hospital Reading, Berks County
Riddle Memorial Hospital
Media, Delaware County
(I have information that this hospital continued to register births as Standard
Time through 1975)
Rochester General Hospital Rochester, Beaver County
Rolling
Hill Hospital
Elkins Park, Montgomery County
This hospital is sometimes listed as being in Cheltenham
Sacred
Heart Hospital
Chester, Delaware County
Saint
Joseph’s Hospital
Lancaster, Lancaster County
Saint
Joseph’s Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Saint Joseph's Hospital Reading, Berks County
Saint Luke's Hospital Fountain Hill, Lehigh County
Temple
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Hospitals
confirmed as recording birth times as EDT during Daylight Savings Time and EWT
during War Time prior to April 12, 1972.
Episcopal
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Hospital
of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP)
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Pennsylvania
Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
[This is not the Hospital of the University of
Pennsylvania (HUP)]
Saint
Vincent’s Hospital
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County
Sewickley Valley Hospital Sewickley, Allegheny County
Additional Information
From Bobbie Folz Peters
Hello Amanda,
I have some info concerning the recording of Pennsylvania births I hope you will find helpful. I was born in the St. Luke's Hospital in Philadelphia (no longer in existence) on Aug 9, 1940. The time of birth was recorded as 2:43 PM EST. My sister was born in 1944 while "War Time" was in existence year round. (War time was the equivalent of Daylight Savings Time) She was born in Philadelphia at the Frankford Hospital Oct 28, 1944 and her birth time was also recorded in standard time 4:31 pm EST. My son Nicholas was born in the Allentown Osteopathic Hospital on May 26, 1973 at 6:02 AM EDST; however his certificate shows his time of birth as 7:02 AM EST.
I have decided to begin passing on information based on Pennsylvania astrologer’s personal experience and research even when we still lack the official documentation.
DEAR
AMANDA,
I was talking to a couple gentlemen who work at the university I work at.
They both told me separately that all hospitals in pa. recorded birth time in
standard time, and that procedures at the hospitals where
recorded in standard time , all the clocks in the hospitals where set on
standard time making it difficult for the people working there.
My friends are in their 70s and 80s ,one remembers walking in to a hospital in
1963 and all the clocks where on standard time when everyone else was
using daylight savings time. they said it was the law and all hospitals in
pa. followed it . I don't know when they stopped ,but they both thought it was
the mid 60s [it was actually 1972 AO]
I hope this will help you out,
j.s.
Abington Hospital
Astrologer Linda Waters has reported that she quizzed a person in Medical Record at Abington Hospital which is located in Montgomery County who reported that this hospital recorded births as Standard Time all year around until the early 1950’s. After that the hospital recorded in local time. Although there is nothing yet official, Linda Waters feels certain that the Standard Time works for clients who were born prior to 1950.
Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Chester-Crozer Hospital of Chester
I
have two hospitals that I think used EST to document births but do not have
anything firm. It is not uncommon
in Pennsylvania for a mother to insist that the birth time for her child is
exactly one hour off than the time the hospital lists; or, for a mother to
document in a baby’s book a birth time that is different than the officially
listed time on the hospital Birth Record.
The
two hospitals that have come to my attention are Women’s Hospital of
Philadelphia and Chester-Crozer Hospital of Chester, Pennsylvania.
Because of more than one report about discrepancies in the recording of
birth times from these two hospitals, I feel fairly confident that both
hospitals recorded birth times as EST during EDT.
Please let me know of your experience with these hospitals.
Information about Passavant
Hospital in the Hill District of Pittsburgh
Amanda,
Hi, I contacted you about the Pennsylvania time project a few weeks back because
I was so *shocked* to learn that for decades hospitals had been recording times
as Eastern Standard all year long. I NEVER knew this until I read it on your web
site, and obviously for astrology buffs this bureaucratic quirk makes all the
difference.
You can actually wheedle a birth time out of the state records office at New
Castle, but, as you thought, you must write a letter specifying that you want
the time specifically. I did this, and I got yet another form to fill out and
return, which I did, again emphasizing I WANT THE TIME.
A month later I got a birth certificate with the time! However, the certificate
does not specify whether it's EST or EDT.... Passavant Hospital is in the Hill
District Pittsburgh (site of probably thousands of Western Pennsylvania births,
since it was built in 1854!)
Information about Citizen's General Hospital in New Kensington in Westmoreland County
It's been reported to me by someone who
spoke to a maternity ward nurse who worked at this hospital prior to 1972 that
birth times were recorded in the time being observed meaning that they did not
follow the regulation. The person I spoke with stated that she feels here birth
chart to be accurate using an EDT chart for her summer time birth.
Information about Chester Hospital
Someone reported the following:
I was born in
Chester
hospital 1958 my mother remembers my birth time around 3 am my birth record
says
1.24 am that makes me think that old
Chester
hospital used EST for births
Information about Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital
I received the
below:
Hi, Amanda…
I came across your web page regarding the PA Time Project. It interested me because I was born on August 12, 1951 at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital in Darby, PA. I checked my birth certificate (I still have the original hospital certificate) and found that my birth time is listed as 1:45 AM D.S.T. I also have my sister’s original hospital birth certificate, also Fitzgerald Mercy. It shows that she was born on October 25, 1954 at 5:58 PM E.S.T. (Based on DST ending on the last Sunday of October, DST was in effect when she was born.)
I thought this information might be helpful to you since you have Fitzgerald
Mercy listed as a hospital that recorded birth times in EST. Based on my
sister’s and my birth certificates, it appears they must have done it both ways.
Thanks for an interesting website.
Regards,
Betty Ernst
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