MeghanIsMe

Greetings!

This may be complicated, but I'll do my best to be clear. I am contacting you about a birth certificate for the state of Illinois.

A relative (my father) needs a copy of his birth certificate. However, there are factual inaccuracies on his certificate that prevent him from obtaining a copy. I say inaccuracies rather than errors because the information was, in fact, intentionally misrepresented by his mother.

His mother was a single mother at the time (the '50s) and to avoid social stigma, she made up his (and my) last name (XXXXXX) out of thin air. However, the name on my father's birth certificate has an entirely different last name: one that belongs to relatives, but that he has never used in his life and that he has no evidence to indicate is his name. In fact, he didn't know that his birth certificate didn't have XXXXXX as the last name until he tried to obtain a copy earlier.

Another issue is that, rather than his mother being listed as his mother, his grandmother is listed as his birth mother. This was, again, most likely an attempt to avoid social stigma attached to being an unwed mother.

These things may not have been a big deal in our less document-conscious society some sixty years ago, but it's definitely a problem now. My father would like to obtain a passport to be able to visit my partner's parents in Canada, but at present there seems to be no way for him to obtain his birth certificate as he cannot show that he is the person named on it. Beyond that, having that certificate would not help him as the name on it has an entirely incorrect last name for him.

His birth mother is deceased, and we do not know who his biological father is; his mother never told him that information.

I would be very grateful if you could give me advice on how to proceed in either correcting his birth certificate or, if alternate documentation is acceptable, what that document might be and how we might obtain it.

Thank you so much!