You can win a day in London with a professional family historian (travel not included) from Your Family Tree by answering this question:
Which of the following is NOT shown on a birth certificate?
[A] The child’s name
[B] The child’s sex
[C] The child’s occupation
Actor James Robertson Justice was very proud of being Scottish, "habitually donning a kilt, adopting a Gaelic name, and beating Sean Connery for the job of rector of Edinburgh University." Too bad he wasn't Scottish.
[R]esearch for a new biography on Justice has revealed the actor was a "huge liar" whose real birthplace was distinctly un-Scottish: a London borough.
Writer James Hogg examined Justice's birth certificate and was astounded to discover his subject was born at 39 Baring Road, Lewisham.
He also discovered his name at birth was James Norval Harold Justice. Hogg believes he may have dropped his original middle names and adopted a new one to justify his habit in later life of wearing the Robertson tartan. [Link]
The following anecdote comes from Minnesota, which is said to have a larger proportion of blondes than any other state. Draw your own conclusions.
"My friend Lee overheard this exchange while at the post office last week:I bet her marriage certificate is also in her maiden name.
"Woman Patron: 'I'd like to apply for a passport.'
"Postal clerk: 'Do you have a birth certificate?'
"WP: 'Yes, but it's in my maiden name!'
"The clerk told Lee that this response is not uncommon!" [Link]
Rose Elliot was ready to celebrate her 100th birthday on September 16, 1907.
But after her niece, Doreen McWhirter from north Belfast, checked her birth certificate, she discovered her aunt was actually born on September 28, 1905 - making her 102.
"It was a real shock," Mrs McWhirter said.
"The nursing home she lives in was all set for a big party and I had already bought her a 100th birthday card.
"I told them that we had a wee bit of a hiccup and explained about the birth certificate and her birthday being on the 28th. They were shocked, too." [Link]
Paula Black, who works at the Milwaukee County Clerk of Courts office, received a call from a woman asking how to makes changes to a birth certificate.
The woman, who now lives in Waukesha County, said her daughter's birth weight was listed incorrectly — the baby weighed five pounds, not 10, the mother said, adding that her daughter was upset by the error.
How long ago was the baby born, Black asked. Fifteen years ago, the mom replied. [Link]
Judy Quiban and Douglas Whittaker's baby was born at a Chevron station in Elk Grove, California.
Quiban and Whittaker were on their way to the hospital. Judy was having contractions. But the couple realized their car did not have much gasoline.
Whittaker pulled into the gas station and started pumping gas as Quiban was yelling at him to call 911.
Holden's birth certificate actually shows the gas station as the place of birth with the father in attendance.
"Chevy!" Quiban's daughter said, suggesting a nickname for the baby. [Link]
Mark Gilliam, 41, is searching for his birth parents with the slimmest of clues.
The only clues are his birth certificate, which states under place of birth 'Found on The Pavement, Clapham', and fading newspaper cuttings that report he was abandoned in a public toilet.
Attempts to trace Elizabeth Coulbeck, the lavatory attendant who found him, have so far failed. When she discovered Mark he was well-fed and dressed in white bootees and a romper suit embroidered in orange, green and white. 'We're not sure if there is an Irish link,' Mark said. He was found the day after St Patrick's Day, so he is called Mark Patricks on his birth certificate. [Link]
Unknown Hinson, "The King of Country Western Troubadours," is really a guy named Stuart Daniel Baker, but he has a good story to back up his stage name.
"I'm the product of a one-stand, you see," Hinson said.
"When I was born the birth certificate said: 'Mother: Miss Hinson. Father: Unknown.' So, she named me after my daddy. She coulda called me Jack or Theodore, but she didn't. All she was trying to do was be honest, and I thank her for that. She also gave me my gift for music and my good looks. And I thank her for that, too." [Link]
An article on "artist and raconteur" Willy Feilding provides an explanation of his last name:
For Feilding, whose unusual surname is due to the fact, he says, that his parents misspelt it on his birth certificate, is not merely a painter and bon viveur.The name "Feilding" isn't that unusual. Willy's relatives, the Earls of Denbigh, have used that spelling since the title was created in 1622.
The bohemian 66-year-old, a cousin of the Earl of Denbigh, has been a friend and companion to some of the world's most colourful celebrities, from the moustachioed madness that was Salvador Dali to that peerless beauty Princess Grace of Monaco. [Link]
Upon inspection of her birth certificate, a 100-year-old woman in Wales has learned that she blew out her birthday candles on the wrong day for 99 years.
Nellie Davies, who has no idea how the mix-up happened, said: "I couldn't believe it. Who'd have thought all these years I'd been celebrating the wrong day?"
Ever since Nellie was a child she had been celebrating her birthday on May 2 but that has changed since a relative noticed the birthdate was May 24. It was in-fact 22 days later in 1907 Mrs. Davies was born. [Link]We had a similar situation in my own family. My grandmother always celebrated her birthday on November 18, but her official birth record gives the date as November 9. The family record I shared here gives the November 18 date, with the time and day of the week written by another hand. In this case, the official record is almost certainly wrong—perhaps the product of a country doctor with poor penmanship.
Somers Point, New Jersey, City Councilman Patrick Bingham defends raising the price of a birth certificate from $10 to $20 by making a weird comparison.
"Everybody wins" except the poor baby who must go hungry for a day so mommy and daddy can afford a copy of its birth certificate.“A baby's milk can cost more than that ($10) a day,” Bingham says, adding that “everybody wins” if the city raises the price enough to bring in a part-time worker to process vital documents. “We can supply them five days a week — right now, it's only certain hours and certain days — and sometimes people are coming from out of state for them.” [Link]
Elizabeth McNabb was 19 in 1974 when she began her search for her birth mother. Fourteen years and a court order later, she was given access to her original birth certificate in Salem, Ore. She soon after made contact with her birth mother, Barbara (Woodward) Piel, and learned that she was the product of an illicit affair.
McNabb's great-grandfather, she also learned, was Orator Francis Woodward, a Leroy, N.Y., entrepreneur who purchased a business making a flavored gelatin known as "Jell-O" from his neighbor for $450 in 1899.Barbara Piel died in 2003, but it took until last week for McNabb to be granted her share of the multimillion-dollar Jell-O fortune.
On Friday, a unanimous New York Appellate Division, 4th Department, panel ruled that McNabb legally constitutes a "descendant" and "living child" of her mother, Barbara W. Piel, under trusts established by Piel's mother in 1926 and 1963.
McNabb -- an office manager who has with her husband cared for more than 160 emergency-care foster children -- now stands to split those two trusts with her two half-sisters. Her one-third share totals approximately $3.5 million. [Link]
Parents of 100 children in Vietnam asked for and received bogus death certificates for their kids, and then applied for new birth certificates to make them appear younger.
The fact of the matter is that most of these children are bad students who repeatedly fail to get promotion to the next higher grade. [Commune head Nguyen Duy] Bon said, to avoid classmates’ taunts and other problems, people had used to ask the authorities to lower their children’s ages but the paperwork was cumbersome. [Link]
A young man from South Africa named Surprise Ndlovu was surprised to learn that his birth certificate says he is female. This means that he can't get his national identification documents and proceed with his studies—at least not without undergoing several rounds of expensive surgery.
"My life is doomed," he said on Wednesday, holding back tears.
"I wanted to become a social worker, but now it seems I can't even become a truck driver.
"How can I get a driver's licence without an ID book?" [Link]
Shonda and Rick Durham's third child was born on the way to the hospital in the car his mother earned as a Mary Kay consultant.
As if being born in a Pink Cadillac wasn't unique enough, his birth certificate is also different than other newborns.
"It say[s] I-75 on it at mile marker 67," Rick said. [Link]
When Paul and Leanne needed a surrogate mother, Leanne's own mother, Antoinette, stepped in to help. The baby that resulted—a boy named Kye—is legally his mother's brother.
Victorian law demands the birth mother and her partner are registered as parents.
Antoinette's husband, David – Leanne's father – is registered as Kye's father and Leanne is legally considered Kye's sister. His biological father, Paul, does not rate a mention.
Leanne and Paul would need to adopt their own son to have his birth certificate amended – but even this is not allowed under Victorian law. [Link]
81-year-old James Pickell of Loudon County, Tennessee, got his last name in World War II.
His farmer father was Robert Pickel, with one "l." When James was born, he says, the doctors put "le" on his birth certificate, so he arrived as James Pickle, the son of Robert Pickel. If that is clear.
"When I came out of the Army, they had my name spelled 'ell' on my discharge. So, I stuck with that." [Link]
Ontario has extended its 15-business-day money-back guarantee on birth certificates to marriage and death certificates ordered online.
Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips said his ministry has had to issue only 121 refunds for 315,000 online birth certificate applications since the program began just over a year ago.
"Pizza Pizza would drool over these kinds of service levels," Phillips said, referring to the pizza chain's famous 40-minutes-or-free guarantee. [Link]
An Ontario boy is the first child in Canada to have three parents in the eyes of the law.
In a ruling released on Tuesday, the Ontario Court of Appeal said the female partner of the child's biological mother could be legally recognized as the boy's third parent.
The biological father, named on the boy's birth certificate, is a friend of both women and is taking an active role in the child's life.
"It is contrary to (the child's) best interests that he is deprived of the legal recognition of the parentage of one of his mothers," Justice Marc Rosenberg wrote in the ruling, which did not name the three parents or the child. [Link]
A plaque has been installed at 25 Scott Park Road, Burnley, Lancashire, to mark the birthplace of Sir Ian McKellen. Problem is, the Lord of the Rings actor says that's the wrong address.
But Burnley reference library has a copy of the 67-year-old Sir Ian's birth certificate which states he was born at the house.
[Local historian Ken Spencer] said: "The birth certificate clearly states he was born at 25 Scott Park Road.
"We have also checked it out on the electoral roles [sic] at the time and it said the McKellens lived there.
"The family did live at another house in Burnley in Westbourne Avenue round about that time, but we do not know why he has said this." [Link]
