South Carolina Birth Records
Birth records refer to the records made when a child is born. Often, it is begun even before the child is born, but it is always completed after the child had drawn its first breath. It is a very important piece of paper that a person should always have a copy of because it establishes the existence of the person in the legal sense, but it is not that hard to imagine a person losing his or her copy of his birth record. Fortunately, acquiring copies of birth records from the South Carolina Birth Records archive, or any other archives for that matter, is not as hard as it used to be.
Birth records are vital records and as such, they are used to establish identity. This is the reason why the requirements that must be met before they could be issued to a person is more stringent than the requirements that would have been required had they been non-vital records. Note that the security is there because these records are able to establish something and, as such, could be used by a skilled person to create some mischief. In the case of birth records, a criminal could use birth records in order to steal the identity of the person in a crime known as identity theft.
South Carolina Birth Records are kept at the state level by the Department of Health and Environmental Control. The department has copies of records going back as far as January 1905, while earlier birth records may be obtained from other sources such as the state archives and the local issuing authority of the county where the birth occurred. The former is preferred than the latter.
Requesting for a record at the department begins with the searcher first going to the department and making the request at one of the on-duty clerks at the vital records division. Note that the searcher should have an interest in the birth record before he or she would be entertained, and if the request is valid, a request form would be issued to the searcher. The searcher should fill this up as accurately as possible before attaching a copy of his identification card on the form. Government issued identification cards are preferred, but non-government issued cards may be entertained as long as they meet the minimum requirements. The next step would be to pass the requirements to the clerk who would then ask the searcher to pay the required fee. The required fee is twelve dollars, plus three dollars for every additional copy ordered at the same time. Now that all requirements are complied with, the searcher only has to wait between one to three hours before the birth record is issued to him.
Birth records may also be obtained online through the use of online databases. Although unaffiliated with the government, these easy to find and even easier to use databases do provide the same information as the government offices and agencies, although because they are internet searches, they provide the information in question in a faster and more efficient manner with some not even charging anything for the use of their databases.
Birth Records South Carolina
Requests for vital records should follow the procedure given below
- Visit the Department of Health and Environmental Control
- Inform the clerk on duty at the vital records division of your request to obtain copies of birth records.
- The clerk would ask if you have an interest on the record in question and the clerk would determine if your interest is substantial.
- If yes, the clerk would issue you an application form that you must then fill up.
- Once you had filled up the form, submit the same to the clerk who would ask you to present an identification card with your signature.
- The clerk would then ask you to pay the required fee at the cashier.
- Return to the clerk with the receipt as proof of payment.
- Wait between one to three hours before the record is issued to you.
South Carolina Birth Certificate
Provided below are links that may be of further assistance in case of other queries
- South Carolina Government
- Department of Health and Environmental Control
- State Archives
- State Library
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention
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