So if you can't find a birth certificate is it possible that you were never born or just that you can't prove you were ever born?

Bruce, you're splitting hairs, and I don't think you are correct, in any case. The record kept in the county of your birth is the birth certificate, which is why the clerk can certify, on copies, that it is a true and correct copy of the original in its possession. Procedures vary by jurisdiction, of course, and now with scanners, the original submitted to the Clerk may be scanned and then returned, but it certainly used to be that the original document, signed, by the presiding doctor, was held by the county of birth. Parents may, in some cases, have received duplicate originals-- I mean, no copy machines back when I was born, so the original had to be in the public record, or an original.

You can't prove where you were born. Ask the "birthers".

not with a 10-foot pole.

Actually, this is an interesting question. I record public records all the time, such as deeds, and our local procedure used to be they kept the original document, and you got a photocopy with the Clerk's stamp on it indicating the recording information.

Now, they merely scan the original document and hand it back to you with the stamp on it--you keep the original. So . . . I got to thinking, how can the Clerk certify that they have the "original" in their possession? Their original now is merely a .pdf document. Sometimes technology trips us up in surprising ways.

As for the birth certificate, I'll have to ask my daughters after they have their kids in a few weeks.

I got into a bit of a tizzy when I went to get my MD drivers license (no apostrophe, right? :lol:)

I was born in a foreign country, with a birth certificate that is not well-received by American courts. I am an American citizen, with a passport, SS card, utility bills, et cetera.

The Maryland MVA website clearly stated that naturalized citizens must provide their foreign birth certificate. :worried:

I gave them all the other docs I had, and they didn't even bat an eyelid. No problems. Of course, they've since changed their policies to be much saner: Proof of ID, proof of lawful US residency, proof of SSN and 2 proofs of MD residency. Your passport, your SS card and two utility bills. Done!

What I don't understand is how a birth certificate can be used as proof of ID. Who looks like they did when they were a squalling infant?? :eyebrow:

Sure, it's constantly changing. Back when my grandmother was born, the birth records were kept by the church. For my mother, the town clerk entered it into the town records, when somebody told her it had happened. For me, the doctor signed the form, and the hospital sent it to the town clerk, who in turn issued a birth certificate to my folks, if they ask for it.

Turns out, because we lived in a small town with no hospital, my folks never bothered to go back to the town clerk where I was born, to get a birth certificate. The town clerk where we lived gave my mother a notarized form, when I was 5, so I could go to school. It probably wasn't strictly legal, but in a small town, where everyone knows everyone, it served the purpose. I used that same paper to get my SS card.

Flash forward 50odd years, the feds wouldn't buy that form from the town clerk where we lived, and demanded an original birth certificate from the town clerk where I was born. All I had to do was sign a consent form, and Boeing obtained the original birth certificate for me, satisfied the feds, then mailed it to me. So now I can run for president.:king:



And when I'm king, I'm gonna slap half you fuckers up side the head.

Parish records, such as baptism and communion are still considered valid records of identification in most places.

My cow orkers tell me I'm overthinking this. What else is new?

No. Which makes it virtually stinking impossible to do some stuff over here which requires a certified copy. You can get a copy of your birth certificate if you lose the original. But it says copy and the original does not. Fortunately a copy serves just fine..... in the UK, where as here they won't eveb accept the original because it doesn't say "certified copy". Of course it doesn't it's not a fucking copy.

On the UK, they have a regiater, they enter the info twice, they tear off your bit and give it to you. that's your birth certificate. At least they did before it was computerized.

and what Bruce said.

But still, what does some amorphous blob of neoplasm have to do with the upstanding 44-year old asking for a drivers license? And how would you know whether he's pretending to be the right blob?

My old boss (the one who went nuts and stopped coming to work) was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, following the close of WWII. His birth certificate was issued there. They only had the old forms ... so his is festooned with swastikas.

Used to cause quite the stir when he had to produce it.

Sorry, didn't mean to impugn the responsible, honest, upstanding meth heads out there.

I accept your apology, on behalf of the responsible, honest, upstanding meth heads.:lol2:

My Dad always had probs with birth certificates. His was lost when he ws a kid. Unfortunately the place where he was born was somewhat disrupted by the troubles in India just prior to partition. It was pretty much impossibloe for him to get another copy.

Sounds like a friends wife. She is an white American born in Libya. Her BC is the size of a small poster and all in Arabic. No where is her name written in English.