by Larry Lynn

Created on: June 03, 2008

Prefatory Comments:

For six months, I have been trying to get my social security benefits. My application was delayed because I did not have an original of my birth certificate. That original is in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, specifically in the Office of Vital Records. Because I had a legal change of name in 1962 changing my original last name to an adoptive stepfather's last name, my birth record states that I am Lawrence Kinsman. However, in 1978, I had another change of name, done legally, to accommodate the desires of a woman who, as my prospective wife, did not want THAT last name, nor did I want hers. She chose the last name I have borne for the last thirty years, LYNN.

Now that I need evidence that I was born, am still alive, and have not died, the difficulties have mounted. This letter to the New York City Office of Vital records is a tribute to that frustration.

From: Larry J Lynn AKA Lawrence Kinsman
To: New York City Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene
Office of Vital records
Re: Birth Certificate Request

Dear Madam;

This simple request for a simple birth certificate for a simple, unassuming man, with a very simple change of name does not have to be complex.
This request has been an ongoing DEBACLE since December of 2007. The list of reasons for which the request was denied included the fact that the name on the credit card for payment for the original request was different from that name on the certificate. Of course it is. That is the result of having a change of name. But, what difference does it REALLY make who PAYS for the document? Really! Then, the request was denied because you needed a copy of an original (how oxymoronic can that be) of the court order that legalized the change of name.

All of that having been sent, the next reason for denial was that the check I sent was not acceptable because the name and address were NOT indelibly etched in stone and carved permanently on the check. My writing my own name (or whoever I happened to be at the time of writing the check) was not enough even though the checks were given to me by the bank as instruments of proper value and valid as money, which is the same as cash [as Yogi says]. But, this condition was nowhere to be found on the original application for acquisition of a birth certificate. Nor does it state the name of the person for whom the birth certificate request is being made has to be called by the name on the certificate itself.

The NEXT reason you denied my request,

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