Heirloom Birth Certificates

Greetings,

I am a EE newbie, having just received my copy yesterday! I jumped right in to try to correct citations in my FTM program, starting with my own vital records. Harder than I thought!

I have an heirloom birth certificate issued by the State of Ohio, which does cite the "State File Number" of my original birth certificate as well as my parents' names. (My original certficate was stolen along with all our other vital records being held in a home safe in 2003; this was my choice of replacement.)

I am struggling with whether this would be considered an artifact or a vital record. I'm leaning towards artifact, although it was issued by the Dept. of Health, and the signatures are printed, not actually signed.

(I have determined that this would be a derivative record, of secondary information, providing direct evidence....I think.)

Thanks for any help.

 

 

Submitted byEEon Sun, 12/31/2017 - 18:32

ncasey61, this would not be a family artifact because it is not something handed down in your family. You ordered it from a government agency. That is where others (or you) would later need to go to obtain a copy. Therefore, your citation should identify the agency and the details under which it is filed there.

The QuickCheck Model on p. 430 or p. 432 would be appropriate—as would the examples under EE 9.41. The one quirk in this case would be to note that it is the type of certificate Ohio refers to as an "heirloom certificate." We note this because different types of certificates can carry different details.