I agree with all the responses but wanted to add that this process can be 
more difficult if one waits too long ("too long" varying widely) before 
applying for a birth certificate. I bartered with someone years back for my 
legal services (got myself a lovely handmade hammock :) ) who had waited 
until her child was four years old. I had to prepare a lengthy petition 
complete with affidavits of birth witnesses, parents' birth certficates, and 
criminal record checks.  I have often wondered, lying in my hammock, whether 
we would even have managed it in a post-9/11 world without DNA testing.

Jake Marcus, J.D. 

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