cdifoto wrote in post #5886694
You can get original birth certificates from your state capitol's department of vital records. I had to get one for my passport application in April.
We're highjacking a little bit here, but...
Yes, that was the very first stop my friend made. That's where she got the copy of a copy. But to make matters worse, the state of California has two different birth certificates on file for her.
It's a longer story.... But basically her real father is her mother's first husband. By the time she was born her parents were divorced, mom was remarried to her step father and the hospital issued an incorrect birht certificate under her step father's name.
Later her mother attempted to correct this but more mistakes were made and the originals of both documents appear to have been lost. Both certificates are now only on file as those old "negative" style photo copies, and are not very legible.
Even worse, for some reason someone at the records office decided to strike a large X through the correct certificate!
It's a real mess, there are no immediate relatives still alive who can attest to what's correct and the courts in Canada are refusing to accept the copies of copies as valid proof of identity.
My friend is a bone cancer survivor/amputee, can't drive and is in a motorized wheelchair full time, so it's difficult for her to get herself around to track down information and pound on record clerk's desks.
She has found a firm that specializes in recovering inheritances like this and is working with them. But, it will cost her 35% of whatever is recovered, if anything. Years ago she already received some other, similar inheritances from her grandfather, through her mother, but they were all holdings in US companies, not Canadian.
Just goes to show how important original documents can be, I suppose.
