What if vital records does not have a copy of someone's birth certificate?

Question

The vital records department tried every combination of a friend's name with her mother's maiden name and father's name (they were not married), along with the date of her birth and county she was born in and they said they can't find anything even close to matching her information. Could this mean she was adopted and the birth certicate she is looking for is in a sealed file?

Answer 1

It wasn't until after WWII that Texas really clamped down on vital records. Before that a lot of people who were born at home or died at home did not get recorded.

Texas started in 1903.  However, both of my parents who were born in 1907 and 1908 respectively had to get a delayed birth certificate when time came to draw social security. Their brothers and sisters did also.

I had a first cousin who was born at home about 1925 and she is not recorded.

Answer 2

It means that you are probably looking in the wrong place. In other words, she was not born where you think she was born. Where is the mother of this child? The mother would know exactly where and when she was born.

Answer 3

Lots of maybes. Every researcher has tried to find records that people "say" isn't there, but we wind up finding them.  Clerks are not always determined enough.

Since your friend seems to be living.. don't post the name here.. but you can send it to me through my profile/ email, and I'll see if I can find it on ancestry. I assume this is Texas.. their birth index is online.  

Most likely it is filed with a typo.

Answer 4

I have two grandparents who did not have their births recorded.  Fortunately I found affidavits attesting to their births in a pile of old family records. One affidavit was sworn by his mother, the other was sworn by a neighbor. Lost or non-existent records were common among people crossing the American prairie in the 19th Century, and very common for areas in which records were destroyed by war.

If your problem is not caused by a typo, it's possible that the record was never generated. In that case, you have to search through legal records to see if the person later applied to "get real" with the almighty State.

In areas where no county government had yet been formed, seek church baptism records.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Answer 5

You need to keep your mind open to the possibility that she was born in another county or even another state. Have you tried contacting the Social Security office? The first three numbers of her social security number is an area code.