Birth Certificates

Changing a Birth Record

Accurate birth records are a priority for the Office of Vital Records. State and county vital records staff work closely with hospitals and families to assure that information is correct.

Hospital birth registrars collect the information required to register births from parents and other sources at the time of a child’s birth. The birth registrar enters the collected information into a statewide electronic vital records system where it is securely stored. Birth certificates print from the statewide electronic vital records system for persons who complete a birth certificate application and pay a fee. The law limits who can obtain a certified birth certificate. (See tangible interest above)

Information on a Birth Certificate

Birth records contain a lot of information but only some of that information - certification items – prints on a certificate. Certification items include a subject’s:

• Date of birth
• First, middle, and last name
• Parent’s date of birth
• Parent’s name (first, middle, last)
• Parent’s name at birth (mother’s name before first marriage)
• Parent’s place of birth
• Place of birth (name of hospital or facility, city, county, state)
• Plurality (single, twin, triplet, etc.)
• Sex
• Time of birth

In spite of efforts to make sure that birth records are accurate, information sometimes needs to be changed or added.

Corrections

You may correct or add certification items within one year of the birth, and before you have purchased a certificate.

As a parent, you can review the information that the birth registrar collects for the birth record when the birth registrar enters the record into the electronic vital records system. You can also review the items that will print on the birth certificate when you receive the Parent Notice sent by the county vital records office soon after the birth of your child. You may use the Parent Notice to make corrections to information that prints on the birth certificate before you purchase a birth certificate.

The hospital that filed the birth record, county vital records offices, and the Office of Vital Records has authority to correct birth records. Depending on the correction, documentation may be required. No fee is required to make a correction.

Amendments

If you have already purchased a certificate, or it is more than one year after the birth, any changes to certification items require an amendment application, documentation, and a fee. The Birth Record Amendments webpage provides information about requesting an amendment to a birth record.

Replacements

A new birth record is created when there is an adoption, when paternity is established or adjudicated, or upon a court order. The new birth record replaces any other birth record that may exist for that individual and shows no evidence of the previous birth record. The Office of Vital Records replaces birth records after receiving the required documentation and fee.

Information about adoption-related records is on the Birth Records after an Adoption webpage. For information about adding a father to a birth record, see the Birth Records and Paternity webpage.