Delayed birth certificate filed by birth year rather than year filed

By rtkoehler on Tue, 08/06/2024 - 14:33

Forums

I am trying to accurately cite the birth certificate for my great-great-grandfather, who was born in 1905. He obtained a delayed birth certificate in 1940. I should first explain that Florida has two types of birth certificates - the computer-generated short form, and the photocopy-generated long form. I have both. Also, this particular delayed birth certificate was not issued through the county or by a court - it was issued administratively by the state vital statistics office pursuant to the law in effect at the time.

Delayed birth certificates, Belden Oliver Whitted - Florida


A few dilemmas. First, even though the certificate is clearly delayed, the original record just says "Certificate of Birth." Second, I'm not sure what year to indicate in parenthesis after the file number. Per the short form, it's clear from the State File Number that this certificate, even though issued in 1940, was filed with the 1905 birth records. Here is what I have so far based on §11.33 (4th edition):

Florida, Department of Health, delayed birth certificate no. 109-1905-020623 (1940??), Belden Oliver Whitted; Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics, Jacksonville.

But then, if I go based on Template 12 (4th edition), I get:

Florida, Department of Health, Certificate of Birth no. 20623 (19??), Manatee County, Belden Oliver Whitted, born 9 December 1905; issued 8 December 2008 to Robert T. Koehler, [address for private use], Tampa, Florida. 

Very confused. Any guidance would be very much appreciated. 

Submitted byEEon Tue, 08/06/2024 - 17:52

rtkoehler,

The year that goes in parentheses is the year the document was created. That's how the documents are filed.

The words you use to identify the certificate should be the words that appear at the head of the document. If you know it's a delayed certificate but the short form does not say so, then simply add the word "delayed" in square editorial brackets or else add a statement to the end of the citation to explain the situation.

The long file number that includes 1905 may not be the actual file number for that 1940 certificate.  We can't assume that it is. Unless you have called the office and confirmed that, you may wish to put both years in the parentheses as, say (born 1905, filed 1940).

If I were to go into the vital statistics office and manually find this birth record, I would find it filed with the 1905 records, not the 1940 records. That's my confusion. 

 

State File Number

 

Submitted byEEon Sat, 08/10/2024 - 08:03

rtkoehler, several thoughts here:

1. Are you saying that Florida allows us to go into their vital statistics office and do the search ourselves?  Normally, we contact them and they make the search or we use a third-party company that tells us nothing at all about the organization of the records.

2. From the snippet you posted, how can we say that the office filed that delayed certificate with records created in the year 1905? From the image, we only know that the year of birth is the middle part of the certificate number. 

3. Also, the word "file" has two meanings with regard to a delayed birth certificate.

  • In 1940, Belden Oliver Whitted FILED paperwork to obtain a delayed birth certificate.
  • In 1940, the vital statistics office FILED that paperwork somewhere in its system.

4. Most commonly, a vital statistics office filed that paperwork in a collection called something similar to "Delayed Birth Certificates," in which case

  • its collection might be organized chronologically by the year the paperwork was filed by the individual.
  • its collection might be organized chronologically by the year the individual was born.

5. That uncertainty is why EE recommends that the parenthetical date in a citation be both dates: i.e., (born 1905, filed 1940).