SHIT!

[Cloud]

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.