In a message dated 11/19/2006 8:58:59 AM Central Standard Time, [email protected] writes: Has anyone sent for a copy of a birth certificate in Pennsylvania. I sent for a copy of my mother-in-laws Birth Certificate. She was born in 1909 and . . . Official birth certificates were rather iffy back then, despite the law. Births were required to be registered with the county, but certificates were rarely needed during the course of a lifetime. Home births were the norm, and busy doctors might forget to register the birth, or forget the name if he even knew it, or lose the forms. For their part, most parents followed the custom of their ancestors and entered the child's name in the family Bible and/or in the church records. If proof of birth was ever needed, that was where it would be found. My late mother was born in PA in 1910. She graduated from high school and college, including graduate school, and began teaching, all without ever needing or seeing her birth certificate. Only after she married my father, who became career military after WW II, did she have need for her birth certificate, in order to get a passport. She requested a copy of the certificate from Greene County in 1946. Imagine her surprise when she discovered that her legal name was "Infant Boggess." She had to go through the Orphan's Court to have the certificate changed to the name she had used all her life. (She told me this, and had all the paperwork to prove it.) If your MIL never needed her birth certificate, she might never have known that she was named "Baby Girl." Even if she did know, she may have had no real need to change it and simply didn't bother. It just wasn't that important. How times have changed! BTW, many states use their current birth certificate format when they issue an historical one, but the information on it is correct. The bad guys likely won't be needing a birth certificate for a 90+ year old person. Susan in Louisiana

I wish to thank everyone who sent their thoughts on this subject. I learned alot and I will just go with the name everyone knew her by. Which was Viola Mable, Mable Viola, or Peg or Violet (which was on her Marriage certificate) But I know Heavenly Father will know her no matter which name she goes by. Again thank you all for your help. Carol.