Re: Ordering certificates from the gov, advice pls.
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In reply to:
Ordering certificates from the gov, advice pls.
9/19/01
Do your homework before you write or drop by an office. Find the location of the records, the hours, their rules.
Births that took place before the 1940s were not always diligently recorded.Even those who applied for social security in the mid to late 1900s had to go to provide copies of census reports and baptismal and school records for proof of age.Birth certificates for them just may not exist.
Every state has a state government website.I use the keywords (state name) state government and do a search.In most states the birth records are held by the Department of Public Health.They will usually have an instruction page on how to send for a birth certificate.Some states have restrictions on their availablity.
The counties also may have kept records of the birth certificates and those will be held by the county clerk or recorder.Their cooperation is entirely up to the person in charge of that office.I just ran into one county where they had turned all the old records they had filmed over to the historical society.If there is a large metro area, the certificates may be under care of the city.