ordering deceased parent's birth certificate

[teakandreggie]

I need to order the birth certificates of both my parents who are deceased, from NYC Vital records.
I was told only the person who's name appears on the certificate or the parents can order a birth certificate.
Can anyone help. I'm stumped.

[PeterTimber]

www.nyc.gov/html/records/home.html holds the Vital Records information you are seeking under Vital records. =Peter=

[Tessa78]

Hi Teakandreggie,

I have run into this roadblock as well. It seems all the birth records prior to 1910 for NYC are available to anyone. From 1910 on you may only request with notarized permission from the person named on the certificate. Makes it kind of difficult if that person is deceased. Others here at this forum have suggested getting a copy of the Social Security Application which holds lots of information.

Meanwhile I'll be interested to see if anyone comes up with a way to get around the present restrictions on the 1910 and later BCs.

T.

[PeterTimber]

I am sure Tessa is correct but has anyone applied for a waiver of this post 1910 restriction?

www.ssa.gov/foia_guide.htm is a guide to obtaining social security records on payable the internet. Perhaps this may be the way to go. =Peter=

[jgenduso]

Hi I received my Dad's birth cert from 1915. Here's the text of the letter I wrote them...

Me
Address
City, State, Zip
July 13th, 2009

Office of Vital Records
125 Worth St, CN 4, Room 133
New York, NY 10013

Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing to request a “long formâ€

[PeterTimber]

Dear JGenduso thank you for confirming my suspicions about waivers for the post 1910 birth record prohibition. I have found that there are waivers for most documents and other adminstrative brick walls that initially prohibit but perseverance usually overcomes these obstacles.

=Peter=

[Tessa78]

Thanks Joseph. That will really help me tremendously in my pursuit of these records.

T.

[johnnyonthespot]

jgenduso is either incredibly lucky or his letter just happened to cross the desk of an incredibly untrained NYC worker.

The fact is that New York state has probably the most restrictive laws of any US state in regards to who may obtain certified copies of vital records and NYC is bound by most of these same laws.

Perserverance has little to do with it; check out some of the threads at expattalk to see the struggles of people desparately trying to obtain documents. This one, for example.

[PeterTimber]

Dear Johnny there are always waivers and ways to get around these restrictions by intercession of your own efforts or those of your state or federal representatives to go to bat for you. This is what they are supposed to do in behalf of their constituents...go to bat for you.

This is what your exemplar "this one" did because he was desperate so he says beneath his original complaint and VOILA! he got what he wanted.

You can never have all the rights you are entitled to because those in authority would have no authority to exercise so hence allyou are doing is demanding those rights inherently yours to exercise. =Peter=

[teakandreggie]

Thanks everyone. I will try the letter approach. If that fails, I will have to request a court order to obtain the birth certificates. There is no guarantee I will receive a court order and this can take many months.
Has anybody gone this route and what was the outcome, did you get the birth certificate?
Will the consulate in NYC accept other documents in place of deceased parent's birth certificate? I have copies of baptismal papers and I have my mother's original SS card, but not my father's.

[PeterTimber]

I am sure the letter will be sufficient. The website I listed above can also be read and that also shows that a letter to NYC department of Vital Statistics must be sent since the requested record cannot be ordered on the internet from NYC Vital Statistics office. =Peter=

[cdevita]

what is a with letter of exemplification??

[katier]

what is a with letter of exemplification??

If it's like the Philadelphia marriage certificates - you need the letter of exemplification in order to get it apostilled. Certified copy may not be good enough.

I can't speak specifically to NY docs - but my husband's parents' marriage cert came from the county of Philadelphia's orphans court. I ordered a certified copy and sent it off for apostille. It was returned by the state of PA because the assistant clerk in Philaldelphia signed and certified it. (They only apostille the clerk's signature). The letter of exemplification ensures you have the appropriate signature you need for apostilling.

At least that's what I was told. I'm still waiting on my new request for exemplified copy - which I'll send off, again, to be apostilled.

[cdevita]

thanks!

[teakandreggie]

Peter,
Should I request a certified photocopy of the original application for a social security card or a certified computer extract of the SS application. What about a letter of exemplification?
teak