Many birth registrars send a notification of birth registration when a birth has been recorded. The purpose of this form is to notify the parents of the information contained on the birth record so that any necessary changes can be made in the record.

When a notification of birth registration is presented, accept it in lieu of a public record of birth if it is properly certified by the issuing agency or official in accordance with GN 00301.045 and it reflects the month, day, and year of birth. If the complete DB is not shown, ask the claimant to obtain preferred evidence.

Assume in the absence of evidence to the contrary that a domestic notification of birth registration was recorded shortly after birth.

Notifications of birth registration issued by Kansas City (MO) sometimes show “Special” in the file number space. These records are similar to DBC's (see GN 00302.540) but are often used for persons born in other cities or States (see GN 00302.500).

Such documents cannot be used as preferred evidence. Develop for preferred evidence or, if none exists, convincing evidence. If no such evidence is obtainable, the Kansas City (MO) Downtown BO can verify what evidence was presented to support the DB shown if a copy of the “Special” notification is sent to the BO.

In 1924, the Bureau of the Census began issuing the form, “Notification of Birth Registration” . The Bureau used this form to notify parents that their child's birth had been registered in the State where born. The information shown was taken from the original BC by means of a copy sent to the Bureau of the Census for statistical purposes. The use of the form was discontinued in the mid-1940's.

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  RULE: Treat these forms as notifications issued by the State registrars. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, regard the information on the forms as having been recorded shortly after birth.

Occasionally a notification of a DB occurring in one decade (e.g., the 1920's) will be printed on U.S. Government printing office stock dated in a later decade (e.g., the 1930's). Ignore this apparent discrepancy. Since the notifications were certified directly from vital statistics records, the date the notification was issued is irrelevant.