Would you purchase a birth cert for someone still alive? I have a mystery that can be solved by the purchase of the birth cert, but I do not feel it is ethical to do so. Briefly a 90+ (born 1920's) year old relative has a birth reg with the surname he uses and the correct mmn. On the 1939 reg the mother is listed as single living with her mother using her maiden name obviously her son's entry is still redacted, there is no redacted entry in that household. The surname of her son is added in green, onto the 1939, so a later entry. I cannot find any marriage after 1939 (nor before). The only person who might possibly be able to tell me the father's name (his 80 year old cousin) has no recollection of any father/husband, nor knows a christian name. There is no way I will ask the the chap concerned, so his father's name will have stay unknown. So would you buy the cert and keep quiet about it's content, or just leave it?
Oh I'd definitely get a copy. I think you may have already answered your own question about any moral dilemma you feel in that you've already tried to get the information from his cousin. I think that an ethical question would only arise if you had some ulterior motive for getting it, which you clearly haven't.
I'm with Jan and Flook.....If you keep the information private then your answer will be there..or maybe there won't be an answer. You are lucky you are able to order it..I have a question mark relative on hubby's side..he is no longer alive and neither is his mother, but It will be another 20 years before I can access his and by then I likely will have forgotten all about it
It's just a piece of paper. It doesn't belong to any particular individual - it's a government document. The only information on it that refers to a living person is his date and place of birth, which he freely declares. The rest of the information refers to people who are long gone and can't be touched. Unless you suspect that the father was a Mass Murderer or of Royal Blood (and even then, does it matter, as long as you don't hurt the living?) ... ... I would get the certificate. 'Cos knowing the truth is always better than speculation. Jane
I fully understand how you feel but unless you intend publicising the information to all and sundry I see no moral problems.
Thank you all for the reasurance that I woud not be doing something unethical So I have ordered the cert I have none of my research in public and it will remain so. So whatever the b/c reveals it will go no further than me - so that salves my conscience a bit. And yes I am being nosy
I have done so, but had similar misgivings about invading privacy. (I wonder if anyone has ever ordered a copy of mine? ) What Bonzo said.
I haven' had to do so but if it were the only way to get the info I would get the cert, after all you don't harm anyone by doing so and only you and the Registry people know.
The matter would never come up here because we cannot apply for and get someone else's birth certificate for obvious reasons.......to my knowledge. (identity theft). Just so you know where that law probably came into being........the man who murdered Rev. Martin Luther King came up to Toronto and was able to get 3 different passports by going through old newspapers and writing down birth info (parents, dates, etc.)........his name was James Earl Ray. And Ron and I knew two of the 3 people whose identity he stole. Just my 2 cents worth of Canadian legal stuff. Doubt in this day and age it has changed. Sue?? PS.....I couldn't get a copy of my parents' marriage certificate using the official letterhead of the lawyer I worked for and stating it was for "court purposes". It wasn't....just for several personal reasons. Never did figure out how the Gov't. cottoned onto it. Or maybe it was a general rule. This would have been in the early 1980's. (found 2 original marriage certificates in Dad's files after he died, which answered the question....20 years later, lol).
I would certainly be beside myself if I found that someone was able to get copies of my personal information. Thankfully birth information is not available under 101 years here for anyone other than myself. So to get that I would have to prove who I am first..... If you are remarried, to prove who you are, you have to have the whole paper trail. Birth certificate, marriage certificate, divorce nisi or death certificate of previous partner then marriage certificate of new partner. For the ladies that is, as their names change.
I now have the cert and can stop trying to find a marriage (although the b/c gave mmn as though there was one, mum registered the birth). The father was a Russia immigrant (an older man) who married before the 1911 census (no children), died in the mid 1930's, so his son was under 10, and in the very same quarter his legal wife married again. The child was born at the mother's family home address and at some point after 1939 register was taken, his mother adopted the same surname as her son. She never married afterwards. I have answered the questions, and I am going to leave it there, quietly sitting on a branch of my tree, and probably now known only by me - and it will stay that way.
