While doing research on my family history and preparing to apply to Ob/Gyn residency, I came across an amazing fact, thanks to Aunt Sue Linda Capelouto who sent me my grandparents birth certificates. I realized that both of them happened to be born at the same hospital (Georgia Baptist in Atlanta, now Atlanta Medical Center). But even crazier, I saw that the signature of the delivering physician, an Ob/Gyn, was the exact same on both birth certificates, even though they were born 10 years apart. My grandmother, Rachel Franco, was born in 1930 and grew up in Atlanta. In contrast, my grandfather, Reuben Capelouto, was born in 1920 and left Atlanta shortly after, growing up in Tallahassee. They did not meet until their 20s! So, here was an undiscovered family fact nobody knew, my grandparents were delivered by the same Ob/Gyn! After much digging, I was able to decode who this physician was from his signature (which was quite difficult, as doctors have notoriously bad handwriting).
His name was Oscar Homer (O.H.) Matthews, born in Gwinnett county in 1878, the son of a Baptist Reverend. He attended the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons (the predecessor to Emory University School of Medicine, where both myself and my parents received their medical training), graduating in 1906. From there, he did his internship and residency in NYC at the New York Health department, the Lying-in-hospital and the Women's Hospital in NYC (the latter two of which later became part of the Cornell Presbyterian Medical Center). He returned to Emory as an Ob/Gyn faculty in 1913, later becoming the chief of the staff Ob/Gyns at Georgia Baptist Hospital until his death in 1952. He also did work throughout his career in Atlanta at the MacVicar Hospital, Grady, Piedmont, Crawford Long, and the Atlanta Anti-Tuberculosis Dispensary.
Here was a physician who helped bring my grandparents into the world, both immigrants whose families likely only spoke Ladino. It was a privilege to learn more about him and his work, and to realize that both myself and my parents were fortunate enough to study medicine at the school that trained him.
