Birth certificate created at the federal level

By Anonymous on Sat, 08/17/2013 - 17:37

Forums

I have a birth certificate created at the federal level.  The creating agency is the Department of State Foreign Service.  This is an original document with raised seal.  There is no certificate number.  Right now I am citing it like I would a state issued certificate but it looks a little bare because there is no certificate number.   Michele Lynn Simmons, birth certificate (1962) Department of State, Foreign Service of the United States, Washington DC. Any ideas on how I can make this better?   

 

Submitted bymiclewon Sat, 08/17/2013 - 17:38

Sorry that the formatting was off.  I was trying to set the citation off in its own paragraph so you could see it better but that didn't work.

Submitted byEEon Sat, 08/17/2013 - 20:57

Michelle, what you have is not the equivalent of a document from a state-level vital records office. Your document is a federal record, created by a department that was definitely not created to keep vital records.

If you studied NARA finding aids for State Department records you should be able to identify the record group, the series, the sub-series, and the collection that would hold copies of these records.

However, your problem is different. You are not trying to identify a collection so that you can ask NARA to run a search. You already have the document. It was given to your parents about the time of your birth. 

What you have is a family artifact. Pull EE and turn to 3.25, Basic Format: Family Artifact. Use that to craft a citation that identifies and describes what you have, its provenance, and its current location.

 

Submitted bymiclewon Sun, 08/18/2013 - 14:22

Thanks so much :)  I am finally getting around to scanning my documents into the computer (I have 22 years worth).  I figured I would check my citations at the same time.