Now, what is interesting about this source is the doctor explains exactly why someone like Granny Dunham might register the birth of her grandchild, if perhaps, that child was born outside of the United States.
The requirements of a birth certificate throughout the country to show citizenship, during World War II, gave a great impetus to the completeness of registration. This and other factors have made a birth certificate the principal document an American citizen uses to prove legal facts about himself. Almost every parent knows that a baby must be registered soon after birth, not only to meet requirements of the law, but to protect the child later in life.
Now, young Stanley Ann Dunham, who was enamored with her new Kenyan husband may not have realized how important a birth certificate was, but for Madelyn, who gave birth to her child during World War II, it would have been paramount to make sure her grandchild was "protected" later in life with the possession of U.S. citizenship ... perhaps even if it was not honestly obtained .... hmmmmmm.
From Dr. Bennett’s article:
“A nurse or clerk in the hospital fills in the certificate form and gets the mother to sign it. Then the attending physician enters certain medical data and affixes his signature. Finally, the hospital sends the completed certificate to the local registrar.”
edge919 - “You seem to have mischaracterized Step No. 3.”
Nonsense, as Kris Kobach might say you have misread what I wrote. I never said that the entire medical record is contained on the Standard Certificate of Live Birth, only that in 1961 there were “three additional questions required by the Federal government and any additional questions that the State of Hawaii might require.” Obviously, there was additional medical information for the mother and the child that would be in their medical records but not necessarily be part of the SCLB.
edge919 - “Your source says the doctor fills in “certain” medical information, which would mean “not all.”
In this case “certain” refers only to the questions on the Standard Certificate of Live Birth since that is what Dr. Bennett is talking about. This data was collected for statistical analysis both by the Federal Government and the State of Hawaii. Ladysforest has shown that the pencil marks on the BC are Hawaiian codes not necessarily Federal codes. If you look at the left margin of the LFBC you can make out three pencil marks that are coding information (the Nordyke’s have penciled codes in the same locations).
We do not know what medical data was collected for the SCLB, other than the three questions asked by the Feds (IIRC - birth weight, gestation length, legitimacy).
edge919 - “why would nurses type parts of the form that are given to the applicant but not the parts that aren’t??”
Look at the Nordyke BCs, the mother signed them on 8/7/61 but the doctor signed them on 8/11/61. Now look at what Dr. Bennett (BTW, he was the Chief of the Bureau of Health Statistics in 1955 and by 1960 Registrar General for Hawaii) said, “A nurse or clerk in the hospital fills in the certificate form and gets the mother to sign it.” The demographic section was already typed up when the mother signed it but the doctor had not yet added the “certain medical information”.
Dr. Bennett clearly says the attending physician fills in the SCLB medical section. Now it is possible that a doctor might type up the medical data section (or have a nurse do it)or he might write it by hand. It probably depended on his personal preference, how many BCs he had to do and how busy he was.
edge919 - “Chiyome Fukino would characterize parts of a form that would never be given to the applicant.”
Your kidding, right.
edge919 - “this source is the doctor explains exactly why someone like Granny Dunham might register the birth of her grandchild”
I guess that would depend on how well they understood US law and Hawaii statutes.
@Ladysforest:
Are you still pursuing the Hawaiian codes? I don’t know if you have seen this 1959 Hawaiian BC.
http://www.wnd.com/2011/05/298537/
The father’s race is coded “1” as is his “kind of business”. So far all of the coded LFBCs from Hawaii have the father’s race and kind of business coded the same.
BTW - edge919 on that 1959 Hawaiian BC the mother signed it on 6/1/1959 but the attending physician signed it on 6/2/1959.