Birth Certificate

When your little one finally makes his or her big arrival, among the responsibilities you'll have is supplying the information required for a birth certificate. Everyone knows it's an important legal document. A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. A birth certificate is a government-issued certificate which is one of the valid proofs of child’s citizenship mostly required when applying for a passport in person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document or a certified copy of or representation of the original record of birth. In most jurisdictions, the birth certificate is prima facie evidence that the birth occurred. The documentation of births is a practice widely held throughout human civilization, especially in China, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Persia.

Among the information which is needed on the certificate is the seal from the registrar's office (which should be raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored), the registrar's signature and the date the certificate was filed in the office, which must be within one year of the child's birth. However, the requirements for birth certificate are differ depending on the country of issue.  A birth certificate is the first piece of legal ID your baby will have. For example, in USA, when you apply for a Social Security number for your child, you must present the birth certificate. He or she will also need it to obtain a driver's license, passport and other documents in the future. The birth certificate is really the basic ID that everything else depends on.
The original purpose of birth registration was for tax purposes and for the determination of available military manpower. Births were initially registered with churches, who maintained registers of births. This practice continued into the 19th century. Births weren't always registered. That only first became necessary on July 1st 1837, when it was decreed that every subsequent birth, marriage and death in England or Wales had to be registered by the state. With births, the event would be registered in the district where the child was born, and at the end of each quarter, the registrar would send a copy of all the entries to the Registrar General. The compulsory registration of births with governmental agencies is a practice that originated in the United Kingdom in 1853. Between 1837-1875 it might prove a bit harder, as some didn't register, or even gave false names for a number of reasons - to hide the true age of a child so it could be sent out to work, or, after 1853, because parents wanted to avoid the compulsory vaccination of children at three months old, which was introduced that year. Until 1875 there was no penalty for parents who didn't register a birth, and then a £2 fine was introduced.
A birth certificate can impart quite a bit of information about an individual. It gives the names of both parents (at least where the father is named, which is not going to be the case every time). You'll always get at least the first forename of each parent in full - all forenames before 1865 - and their occupations. Additionally you find where the child was born, right down to the street address, and even the mother's maiden name. It makes for an excellent starting point. Birth registration opens the door to rights to children and adults which many other human beings take for granted:
-    to prove their age;
-    to prove their nationality;
-    to receive healthcare;
-    to go to school;
-    to take exams;
-    to be adopted;
-    to protection from under-age military service or conscription;
-    to marry;
-    open a bank account;
-    to hold a driving license;
-    to obtain a passport;
-    to inherit money or property;
-    and to vote or stand for elected office
A birth record contains information about the birth of an individual. On a birth record, you can usually find the mother's full maiden name and the father's full name, the name of the baby, the date of the birth, and county where the birth took place. Many birth records include other information, such as the birthplaces of the baby's parents, the addresses of the parents, the number of children that the parents have, and the race of the parents, and the parents' occupations. The first column on your birth certificate is the entry number in the register. This can be anything from 1 to 500. You can sometimes pick up twins from the fact that they might have the same GRO reference. The date of birth should be clearly written in the form, for example, “Eighteenth May 1840”, although some of the early registers have variations on that in the very first registrations. The name(s) entered in Column 2 of a birth certificate is/are the forenames only. A child can be registered without a first name and even today that is occasionally done. Whether or not the child has been named in column 2, it is possible - by using Column 10 - to alter the name. The third column denotes child’s sex. The next column tells about father’s name. There are 3 kinds of entries in the register: where the parents were married to one another, fathers details must be entered in the register and only one parent will sign the register (or some other informant), where the parents were not married to one another there will be blanks in Column 4 (fathers name) and Column 6 (his occupation) and where the parents are not married to one another but both attended the register office together, fathers details are entered in Column 4 and Column 6 and both parents sign. Looked at a different way - if both parents have signed in Column 7 regardless of what names they are using then the parents were not married to one another at the time of the birth of the child. Column 5 of a birth certificate shows the name, and previous names if any, of the mother of the baby. There are several combinations of name possible. If there is no father shown in Column 4 then there will be no occupation shown in Column 6. If there is a father shown in Column 4 but a line drawn through Column 6 it means that the father did not have an occupation or perhaps was not employed at the time of the registration or the informant did not know what father did. Column 7 describes signature, description and residence of the informant and Column 8 contains the date of registration. In the ninth column you will find the signature of registrar and the last, tenth, column is for the entry of a name given after initial registration.
The types of birth certificates are also different. In England and Wales there recognized full certificates, which are exact copies of the entry, showing the child's surname, forename(s), date of birth, sex, place of birth, the parent(s) name(s), their address and occupations at the time of registration and short certificates, which are abstracts of the original entry and only includes the surname, forename(s), date of birth, sex, registration district and sub-district in which the birth took place. In the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics creates standard forms that are recommended for use by the individual states to document births. In addition to short forms and long forms, many registration authorities also have wallet-sized short form birth certifications available, and apostille/exemplified certifications which are hand signed by the registrar and are to be used when being presented before the government of a foreign country, pursuant to the 1961 Hague Convention.

Tags: documents applying representation