Authenticity of a birth certificate

valerielynn said:

I kind of have a strange question about birth certificates. But I guess it's not so strange considering this question is related to the story that I'm writing.

So I have this female character and she has always believed that her father was the man that her mom was married to. But 3 months after her mom dies she is cleaning out the house getting ready to be sold and she comes across her birth certificate but with a different man's name listed as the father.

My question is would it be possible for someone to have 2 birth certificates (one fake, and one real)? If this is possible would there be a way for her to find out which of the birth certificates is the authentic one?

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A fake one? I'm not sure I understand the fake one bit - like who made it and why and etc.

People have two if one is reissued, like in an adoption. If she was adopted by the second person, they could've had a new cert. issued with his name. I'm not sure I understand the q. exactly.

But you can't usually change the father on a birth certificate, can you? A reissued one would be the same as the original and the adoptive father would show as the adoptive father, wouldn't he? Not as the birth father.

mirandashell said:

But you can't usually change the father on a birth certificate, can you? A reissued one would be the same as the original and the adoptive father would show as the adoptive father, wouldn't he? Not as the birth father.

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There's no place for adoptive parent I've ever seen on a birth certificate.

If you adopt a baby, you get a reissued/corrected cert with your name(s) on it as the parents.

As the birth parents? I thought it was just a certificate of adoption?

mirandashell said:

As the birth parents? I thought it was just a certificate of adoption?

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Yeah, as the birth parents, looks just like the original.

Ah, I didn't know that. I wonder if it's different here. I'm sure I read somewhere that it's a certificate of adoption in Britain. But that may be from years ago.

In Minnesota, the original birth certificate of the adopted child is placed in 'storage', along with other documentation, and a new birth certificate is issued with the adoptive parents listed. It's still very difficult to get those originals unsealed.

As far as a 'fake' certificate, I don't think that's possible. The county of birth would have the original on file, so unless it's an adoptive situation, that would show the real father's name. Your character would have to fill out various forms, but should be able to get a copy of her own original certificate fairly easily unless, as I said, it was an adoption situation.

I don't know but I'd kind of doubt it - you need the cert. of adoption to get the new birth certificate - this is part of why people have to search if they want information on biological parents and the adoption wasn't open, because the info is sealed by the court and not on their paperwork. Adoptees have birth certificates, they just have their parents' names and their name, not the biological peoples' names.

From the state of Ohio, randomly, it just came up with a comprehensive explanation when I looked to make sure I was correct.

Upon receipt of the items sent by a probate court pursuant to section 3107.19 of the Revised Code concerning the adoption of a child born in this state whose adoption was decreed on or after January 1, 1964, the department of health shall issue, unless otherwise requested by the adoptive parents, a new birth record using the child's adopted name and the names of and data concerning the adoptive parents. The new birth record shall have the same overall appearance as the record that would have been issued under section 3705.09 of the Revised Code if the adopted child had been born to the adoptive parents. Where handwriting is required to effect that appearance, the department shall supply the handwriting.

(2) Upon the issuance of the new birth record, the original birth record shall cease to be a public record...

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Mine is beautiful too. Calligraphy and what not.

The only way I know to get a fake one is to find a name on a tombstone of someone about the same age and apply for their certificate.

Thanks Cornflake.

The confusion between Cornflake and Mirandashell might be explained by them being from different countries (if, indeed, they are).

In what country/state/province/canton and what time period is your story set? That's really important to answering your question. (Yes, the ULTRAGOTHA soap box, I know.) Are you writing about Iowa in 2013?

Assuming the USA in the latter 20th or 21st centry--

Don't confuse the fancy wonderful 'birth certificate' often issued by hospitals as a perk or even a paid extra, with the utilitarian certified copies of birth certificates (or certificates of live births) issued by State or County offices of Vital Statistics. Usually the fancy certificate is not official and cannot be used for any legal purpose. (Some localities may issue fancy official certificates but I've not heard of any.)

I should think it would be very easy for your character to come across her official original birth certificate (or the fancy hospital-provided one that's not official) with her biological father listed on it. Her mother could have put it away after she was adopted by her stepfather (assuming that's what happened).

The birth certificate she is familiar with could certainly list her stepfather as her father after he adopts her. That's completely believable.

If she comes across her original birth certificate, she may also come across the legal papers generated by the adoption process.

You wouldn't need a fake birth certificate in this case.

If there was somehow a fake one, it would be easily revealed by requesting a new copy from the registrar which would contain the true registered facts of the birth.

I see not trouble with there being a fake, anyone with a word processor could make one that would pass cursory inspection. I would assume it was faked for the kid or maybe local authorities, not anyone expert at detecting fakes. (My birth certificate is just a piece of paper, nothing fancy).

valerielynn said:

I kind of have a strange question about birth certificates. But I guess it's not so strange considering this question is related to the story that I'm writing.

So I have this female character and she has always believed that her father was the man that her mom was married to. But 3 months after her mom dies she is cleaning out the house getting ready to be sold and she comes across her birth certificate but with a different man's name listed as the father.

My question is would it be possible for someone to have 2 birth certificates (one fake, and one real)? If this is possible would there be a way for her to find out which of the birth certificates is the authentic one?

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Fake ID is tremendously easy to get - just ask any teenager who is trying to get into a bar or buy cigarettes. Birth certificates, particularly those that are more than twenty years old with less anti-counterfeiting measures built in, can be easily reproduced using a computer and printer and possibly a laminator. So yes, it is possible to have a fake birth certificate and not realize it.

And for your character to find out which is the authentic one, just have them contact Vital Statistics or whatever government agency takes care of that kind of information in her area. She doesn't even have to tell them there is a fake involved - just that she lost hers and needs a new one issued.

Funny you should mention it. Something very much like this happened to my brother-in-law last summer. His mother died and while his younger brothers were cleaning out an old shed in her backyard they discovered her marriage certificate. She and their father were married on her oldest son's second birthday!

These men were in their fifties and forties and never knew that their oldest brother was not a full brother. They were in shock. My brother-in-law still hasn't recovered.

Now there were red flags and one of them was my brother-in-law's birth certificate "card"--a short form. When he was eighteen and joined the navy he could not locate an official birth certificate. His mother volunteered to get it for him because it would be easier for her to go to the court house. She presented him with a certificate saying that he had been born at home and that her husband--now estranged-- was his father.(He was thirty plus years older than she and not quite divorced from a first wife, so it made sense--kind of.)

The birth certificate was an "informed" document. He was not born in a hospital--his grandmother was a witness to his birth and her testimony got him the certificate.

This was true for the most part. His mother was only 17 when she gave birth. No one knew she was pregnant--the story goes she didn't even know. These were the fifties so it is possible a girl of seventeen wouldn't have known--possible but not probable. She gave birth on the bathroom floor and her mother managed to save the baby although he was premature.

After a day or so they drove him to the hospital because he wasn't eating well. They admitted him and since he was born at home his grandmother's testimony was needed to get the BC. Later they were allowed to add his mother's husband's name to the certificate because having legally married her he had that right. This was in Arkansas but I think that was possible in Kansas at the time, too.

As a social worker I saw a couple of those short version BC's. They never work for immigration or Social Security benefits but will work with schools and obviously the navy.

Like I said there were red flags all over the place. His mother was nineteen and his father was 52 when they married. His mother grew angry, almost hysterical when he asked her questions about genealogy. They did not speak for years. He had his dna traced. His supposed father was a Polish born Jew but his dna had no eastern european markers. The service kept hooking him up with a lady in London who had no Jewish ancestors in her history. He looks nothing like his younger brothers who resemble their father.

He began to doubt that his mother was even his mother. That born at home story could have covered a number of things. His mitochondrial dna did check out but he and his brothers are still angry and feeling betrayed. It has been a heck of a time watching him go through this--s6

There's a little known procedure for correcting a birth certificate.

Junior is born and a birth certificate is registered with the name of dad mom provides. Subsequently real father comes forward for whatever reason, and through DNA testing and other evidence, the real father is confirmed as the father. This is a court proceeding and produces a court order decreeing the real father to be the father of Junior. State is then ordered to produce a new, corrected birth certificate.

If the mother had kept the original certificate, you'd have the situation you describe. A check of the state's vital records would produce only the second certificate.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

How old is the character? Or, more importantly, when were they born? I'm going to guess as late as the 50s, but definitely common before the 40s, many people did not have birth certificates (actually, I believe most Americans). If a person fell in this period, they could apply for a delayed birth certificate and that would require providing evidence and affidavits attesting to the birth.

I wonder if that could be a way to pursue this angle.

I saw some suspicious looking birth certificates in my days as a social worker but the real klinkers were easy to spot--Ocotber for October is the one I remember best.

I have heard that an illegal can get a reasonably accurate forgery for hard cash. Why not have your faker go that route?

I can tell you that I used to patronize a place where rumor had it documents were forged for illegals. It also offered brujeria and you could get a cable hook up cheap. The place fronted as a panaderia--a bakery-- on the edge of a small town business district. Great tortas. I'm not sure if the rumor was true but it was one hell of a picturesque location for shady business. --s6

valerielynn said:

My question is would it be possible for someone to have 2 birth certificates (one fake, and one real)? If this is possible would there be a way for her to find out which of the birth certificates is the authentic one?

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Onde genuine and one fake, that would be easy to do, even now, and it would have been much easier in earlier times. Where and when is this set?

To determine whether a birth certificate is authentic one would have to contact the authority that issued it. The certificate would be recorded.

Then there is the matter of one being the birth certificate of someone else.

I know a woman who found out that her father, who was a newspaper reporter, doctored her birth certificate by gaining access to the records department at the local courthouse. Some time later her mother went to the courthouse and requested a "copy" because the original had been "lost." So they had a real, official fake birth certificate. For some reason, they also kept the original hidden away and she found it when she was 30 and was devastated.

This is obviously harder now that everything is computerized, but in the 80's and early 90's it still would have been easy to do.

jclarkdawe said:

There's a little known procedure for correcting a birth certificate.

Junior is born and a birth certificate is registered with the name of dad mom provides. Subsequently real father comes forward for whatever reason, and through DNA testing and other evidence, the real father is confirmed as the father. This is a court proceeding and produces a court order decreeing the real father to be the father of Junior. State is then ordered to produce a new, corrected birth certificate.

If the mother had kept the original certificate, you'd have the situation you describe. A check of the state's vital records would produce only the second certificate.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

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It would create headaches though if it was needed because the dates wouldn't match. One of my bosses was born in the Appalachians, and for some reason no one filed a birth certificate. It was filed a few years later, and he always had problems every time he used it. People looked at the birth year and then at the date of the certificate and started questioning it.

Roughly 40 years ago I knew a woman who had no birth certificate. She was born at home, in the thirties, in I think MS. It was never an issue until she wanted a passport to go on a church trip to the Holy Land. The doctor was dead, her parents were dead, aunts and uncles were mostly dead. She had to get notarized affidavits from several/numerous people who were still living and were old enough to remember her being born. It was down to the wire, but she got her passport in time to make the trip.

MM

Given the age of your character I don't think that her having a fake birth certificate is out of the realm of possibility. I have had new "modern" copies of mine made but I still have the original. I was born in the 80s and well, quite frankly it looks like a piece of crap lol I have no doubt I could recreate it on a computer with a piece of yellow/golden paper.