Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

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Buscape
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Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by Buscape »

Hello all,

I am in the process of compiling records to present a jure sanguinis citizenship application. I need my mother's birth certificate, from the New York State Department of Health. Unfortunately, I found this on their website:

Deceased: If the person whose record is being requested has died.
A court order from a New York State Court of competent jurisdiction is required. The Department of Health cannot advise you on obtaining a court order. You may wish to consult an attorney familiar with New York State Public Health Law. The applicant must submit a court certified copy of the order along with a copy of the applicant's identification, the appropriate fee and a completed birth certificate application form.


Can anyone offer advice or example of how to navigate this process?

I'm wondering if a few things. What is the cost/benefit of hiring a lawyer to do this for me? I'm guessing it's somewhat complicated and I live far from New York State now. Feel free to share any and all thoughts/advice. Thank you!
ffusiak
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by ffusiak »

From reading the criteria on the website of NYS Department of Health -

https://www.health.ny.gov/vital_records/birth.htm -

this is the only way to obtain a certified copy; so I think you are stuck hiring a lawyer to navigate the system.
mjcorazzelli
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by mjcorazzelli »

Hi Buscape,

I have experience with this issue. I had to get my deceased father’s birth certificate in Westchester County, New York.

The news you don't want to hear is yes, you do need to go to court in person to file. In my case, I had to go to the Westchester County Supreme Court to file the paperwork in person on my behalf. You will also need to deal with processors too. I had to fly in from CA to file the papers. The process took 8 months from the date I filed to the date I received the court’s decision & order. Then it took about another month to have the processor serve the city attorney and wait for the city clerk to contact me to make arrangements, of course after I paid, to get my father’s Birth Certificate.

As for finding a lawyer, I searched for over a year to find a lawyer in the Westchester County area, in New York that would assist me with getting my father’s birth certificate. I even tried using lawyer referral services and cold calling family lawyers and I found nobody willing to help. I did find one lawyer that said he would do it but called me the next day to let me know that his insurance didn't cover this type of work.

Be prepared to file the paperwork in person. I hope this helps a bit. It's was complicated with completing the correct form. I am available to have a phone conversation about my experience and the forms required in my case, which should be close to what you need to file too.

Michael
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by ppulvino1 »

Hi Buscape,

I just recently did this process on my own, in the NYC area. If you have a friend who could run an errand or two for you regarding court papers, it's really not difficult to do, just time-consuming. I filed at the beginning of February 2019 and got my signed court order in April 2019. Briefly, I filed all paperwork online for an Article 78 proceeding here: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/HomePage, using templates I found in one of these forums for the Petition, Notice of Petition, and Proposed Order. You pay the fee online for the Index number, upload your forms, pick a day to go to court, and the clerk will come back to you confirming your date, or will assign you a different one based on the court's calendar. Then you need to get a process server in Albany to serve the papers to your "defendent", which is the NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker. I did this online too. A couple of days after the NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker were served, they sent a letter to the court saying it was ok to release my parents' birth certificates to me for dual citizenship purposed, so when I eventually went to court (you must show up), they okay'ed the order right then and there. To get your mom's birth certificate from the DOH, you fill out a paper application and include the court order, and mail it to them (they said it could not be done electronically in cases like this). Please note I did this in April and still have not received the certificates...I think they told me on the phone it takes 8-12 weeks, so bear that in mind. There are other small details I've left out for brevity's sake, so if you want to know more, just respond and I'll try to fill those in for you as well. However, if you prefer to have a lawyer do this for you, a firm called Bousquet Holstein in Syracuse NY does this sort of work. I found them online but decided to try it on my own, as I thought it didn't seem all that difficult. I hope this helps.
Buscape
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by Buscape »

Grazie amici! This is practically helpful and inspiring - I hope I can have success as you both did. I'll be investigating this next week after the holiday and likely replying with questions then, so stand by! In the meantime, thank you both very much for your kind guidance.
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by wolfpaw5555 »

Do you still need help? my mom and I did this without lawyers or spending money unnecessarily.
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by bitterbatter »

Grazie a tutti! This si very helpful...

Question - To which court are we appealing for orders regarding release of ancestors' birth certificates, etc? i went to the NY State link ppulvino1 provided above, and there a few choices:
IMAGE 1-4-20 AT 12.14 PM.jpeg
Also, when i follow the link for "unrepresented litigants," there doesn't seem to be any clarification.

So, are we appealing to the court in the county where the records are held? And, which court?

Thanks in advance. :)

Joe
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by ppulvino1 »

Hi Joe,

Sorry, I just saw this. You would go to Supreme Civil court. You will appeal in the county where you live. For example, I live in Kings County and I was looking for records in Monroe County. Hope this helps.
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by guidoboston »

Before the lawyer route, you may get lucky if you apply to the town clerk that has the record rather than the state. No promises but it's cheap quick and easy.
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by astoria20 »

Hi All -
I hope I'm not too late to this thread as I'm dealing with the same thing as OP. I'm attempting to get my deceased Grandfather's birth certificate from New York State (Westchester County). I'm compiling a list of steps to take that I hope to turn into a more formalized blog post to help others in the future. These are based on this thread and other resources...

1) Check if you can get a birth record / death record from the town clerk first.

2) Prepare documents... (once I generate these, I'll post templates)
- Documents Needed: Petition, Notice of Petition, and Proposed Order
- Documents must be in the right format: one-inch margins all around, legal sized paper, double spaced, in English, black ink, using one side of the paper only.
- Documents need to be signed in front of a notary public.
- Remember to redact any sensitive information
- Generate PDFs of documents

3) File paperwork online for an Article 78 proceeding (https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/HomePage). You'll have to pay a fee online for the index number, upload your forms, pick a day to go to court, and the clerk will come back to you confirming your date or will assign you a different one based on the court's calendar.

4) Get a process server in Albany to serve the papers to your "defendant" which is the NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker, you may be able to do this online.

5) The NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker will be served and they will hopefully send a letter to the court saying it's ok to release the appropriate records. Afterwards, you must show up to court to get the birth certificate from the DOH. You'll out a paper application, include the court order, and mail it to them (cannot be done electronically).

Any help / additions / clarification to the steps above would be greatly appreciated and hopefully help others in the future. Thanks!
alicia330
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by alicia330 »

Hi Astoria20, wondering if you've generated templates yet? I've got to do this too, for my grandmother's birth certificate from Monroe County (Rochester).
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by suesia02 »

Hi Everyone, I'm trying to gain citizenship as well. First, thank you to everyone's comments! They have helped me so much. I have some questions. Maybe someone can provide some guidance.

1. I have my father's birth certificate from Italy, his paperwork stating he is an Italian citizen (from early 2000's) and I have most of it translated. Will these documents need to be notarized after the translation?
2. Once I have all the mandated documents, do I need to make an appointment with the Italian consulate in NYC or do you send everything registered mail considering the pandemic situation?
3. If anyone has done this recently, how long did you wait to obtain Italian citizenship?

For anyone who is taking on the process, I too filed online to request a Court Order for my Mother's Birth Certificate. It cost $210! I spoke with someone in the Yonkers Clerk's office and she said once the Court Order is received, it's best to go to the City Clerk's office and get the birth certificate there.
Also, all documents originating in the United States (birth certificates, marriage licenses) need to be certified, notarized and then apostilled. After this, the documents can be translated.

I hope this helps and thank you in advance if you provide any helpful information! Be safe!
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by studts »

wolfpaw5555 wrote: 07 Nov 2019, 21:04 Do you still need help? my mom and I did this without lawyers or spending money unnecessarily.

Hi wolfpaw5555,
My mom and I have been trying to obtain my grandfather's NY state birth certificate and my great grandmother's death certificate (both in Monroe County) for our upcoming Italian citizenship appointment. We were originally told that my mother needed to apply to become the voluntary administrator for both of them and then she would be able to apply for their certificates. After she completed all of that paperwork, became the voluntary administrator through the surrogate court and re-applied for the birth and death certificate, she received a letter back from the NYS records office stating that she needs an order from the Supreme Court in order to obtain the certified birth and death records. The NYS Dept of Health will not provide any assistance.

It looks like you've successfully done this? Can you provide some guidance so we don't continue to fill out and submit inappropriate paperwork.

Thank you!
Stacia
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by ppulvino1 »

Hi @studts,

First, for the birth record of your grandfather: you will absolutely need a court order for this, and your mother should be the one to file it, since she is his daughter (I'm assuming this is your maternal GF). I did this for my Mom, who died in Monroe County, and successfully got her bc. You'll file an Article 78 proceeding, and if you look at the preceding posts, it details how to do this.

For the death record of your GGM: since neither of you are her spouse, parent, child, or sibling, I believe you'll need a court order for this as well. You can place both of these requests in the same court petition.

Please note that when I filed in 2019, I filed with the court in February, got the court order in April and turned right around and submitted an application for my Mom's bc, but did not get the certificate until the end of August. It takes a while...

Hope this helps.
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Re: Obtaining BIRTH CERTIFICATE of deceased mother, New York State

Post by sjgenova »

astoria20 wrote: 27 May 2020, 03:35 Hi All -
I hope I'm not too late to this thread as I'm dealing with the same thing as OP. I'm attempting to get my deceased Grandfather's birth certificate from New York State (Westchester County). I'm compiling a list of steps to take that I hope to turn into a more formalized blog post to help others in the future. These are based on this thread and other resources...

1) Check if you can get a birth record / death record from the town clerk first.

2) Prepare documents... (once I generate these, I'll post templates)
- Documents Needed: Petition, Notice of Petition, and Proposed Order
- Documents must be in the right format: one-inch margins all around, legal sized paper, double spaced, in English, black ink, using one side of the paper only.
- Documents need to be signed in front of a notary public.
- Remember to redact any sensitive information
- Generate PDFs of documents

3) File paperwork online for an Article 78 proceeding (https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/HomePage). You'll have to pay a fee online for the index number, upload your forms, pick a day to go to court, and the clerk will come back to you confirming your date or will assign you a different one based on the court's calendar.

4) Get a process server in Albany to serve the papers to your "defendant" which is the NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker, you may be able to do this online.

5) The NYS Dept of Health/Howard Zucker will be served and they will hopefully send a letter to the court saying it's ok to release the appropriate records. Afterwards, you must show up to court to get the birth certificate from the DOH. You'll out a paper application, include the court order, and mail it to them (cannot be done electronically).

Any help / additions / clarification to the steps above would be greatly appreciated and hopefully help others in the future. Thanks!

Hello, I am in the process of e-filing an article 78 proceeding. Are you able to share the links to the templates you found for the (1) petition (2) notice of petition and (3) proposed order? Lastly, are you saying you used these templates, filled them out accordingly, presented them to a notary for signature, then uploaded them online?

*I have unofficial birth certificates/death certificates for everyone in my line. I will be requesting 3 birth certificates, 2 marriage and 1 death all from NYS (I am bundling everything that I need from NYS together in my court order request). I am now struggling to find out how to submit these documents on the e-filing website.

Thank you kindly,

SG
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