Question: I have searched for a birth of my ancestor George Victor Ralph Lakin in the Massachusetts Vital Records 1841-1915 to no avail. Can you suggest why his birth does not show up when I have his Boston baptism?
Answer: You will want to search for George without one or both of his middle names. After you perform that search I would systematically examine any Lakin births from that year for simple unnamed males. It was not against the law to simply record a birth without a first name. Many children were not immediately given first names, and occasionally were corrected years or decades later.