My grandmother (mother through adoption) has the beginnings of demintia. I have been unable to obtain her birth certificate, she was born in California and I think she is confused about some facts. I've applied for it 3 times and have been told she isn't in the records each time. If I manage to obtain her birth certificate, I will then have to get her marriage certificate, this is a serious hurdle, since she says she was never married. Her estranged husband passed away, her social security card has her married name, not maiden. I have talked to health and welfare, DMV, social security, her bank, and of course vital statistics. Any suggestions?
My great-grandmother was born on a ship in the middle of the ocean on Feb. 29 in a leap year, but I was still able to locate her through various online means. Keep at it, and you might find something somewhere. Keep in mind that spellings may vary. For instance, a person whose name was Matilde Koehler when she was born might have changed it to Matilda Kohler later. I had a relative whose name was Dragotea, but the nuns when she entered school in the U.S. changed it to Dorothy, though her last name remained the same making her traceable.
Good luck in your search.
Did your Grandmother never have a drivers license? All an ID is taking that license and reverting it to an ID. No passport?
What advice have they given you?
Are you certain she was born in a Hospital? If she was born at home there may have been a problem with registration.
Have you asked her doctor how to proceed.
I honestly wouldn't know myself how to proceed after you have done all you have done. Just thinking in terms of what I would do it would come down to getting advice from APS, from online research, from the Bureau of Vital Statistics, from my local Council or Agency on Aging.
If ALL of that was fruitless I would be down to a P.I., I think (private investigation). They are often quick today, functioning more from their computers than any work on the streets.
I really cannot think of anything else. Perhaps a WALK-IN at Bureau of Vital Stats where she lives to ask what THEY would personally do at this point.
Hope you'll update us. What a mystery she is. And I am assuming you have been through ALL her papers. It's unusual for us elders not to have marriage and birth certificates tucked away somewhere. And SOMEhow she got on Social Security at some point. So there is SOMEthing out there. Good luck finding it.
Make appt. with your local SS Offices, and go there in person with her card. They are very helpful in person, NOT on the phone. Use that SS card to get her ID situation straight. Her legal name (despite her denying being married) is on that card. She can't change her name back to her maiden name in Calif. without the Judge (who finalized her divorce) ordering that name change at her request. Otherwise, she is stuck with that as her legal name, period.
You can't just go back to using your maiden name without Court approval at the final divorce hearing, if the Judge authorized it. She can deny being married all day, but that SS Card proves she was.
Otherwise use that SS Card to help get a her basic DMV ID card. SS may have a record of when she applied for that card, apparently after she got married. SS will have more records, including any jobs she had over the years. You bring utility bills she paid with her address on them to DMV to prove residency. With her SS card, a recent utility bill, a new photo is taken and about $45, she can get a basic California ID card.