The State of New Mexico did not create and keep birth records until 1919 (and New Mexico was not a state until 1912). Where can I find a record of my grandmother's birth in Roswell, New Mexico Territory in 1903? It's on the internet, of course.
A wonderful woman I have never met, by the name of Patsy S. Fannin, reviewed the hand-written records in the Southeast New Mexico Museum in Roswell of physicians who delivered babies in Chaves County from 1903 to 1907, compiled the information, and even obtained missing birth dates from cemetery records in the museum. Then she put the information online in 1997. Here is a link to the information:
http://files.usgwarchives.org/nm/chaves/vitals/births/chvbirth.txt
That compilation shows, in the first collection from 1903, that a female child was born to a parent named W.D. Stewart (I do not know why mostly fathers were named; there only a few women named), who lived on Main Street in Roswell, on November 29, 1903 and was delivered by Dr. Mayes.
That certainly comports with my grandmother's report that she was born on November 29, 1903 in Roswell, New Mexico (in an adobe house, according to her mother, Fannie). This appears to be a record of the birth of Mabel Claire Stewart. I have not run across a baby picture of my grandmother, but here is one of her about the age of 5, in Denison, Texas.
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