My birth certificate took weeks to arrive in my mailbox. This was in the early 1990's, before the advent of the internet. I'd just moved to Austin, Texas, and as a young newcomer and acutely unemployed person, I was hot on the job-hunting trail.
Of course, I knew that before I could secure any legitimate employment, I would need a copy of my birth certificate for official hiring purposes. Unfortunately, I didn't have a copy of my birth certificate in my possession. However, my parents assured me that they had a copy, so I eagerly awaited its arrival in the mail.
My Birth Certificate Ordeal!
You probably already guessed it: my parents never found that copy of my birth record. In all the years that had passed, they had somehow misplaced it. They most likely had filed it away somewhere "safe" - where it could never be lost. Unfortunately, the hiding place was so safe, it could never be found, either. How many times has this happened to you?
In the meantime, I set the process in motion to obtain a certified copy of birth certificate by filling out an application and sending it to the vital statistics office of Milwaukee county, where I was born. Until I received the birth certificate, however, I was unable to be formally hired at any job for which I'd applied! This situation could have been avoided if the internet had been around, for there are now wonderful online services that specialize in expediting birth certificate orders for people who are in a time-crunch situation like I was.
