Individual states keep birth records of anyone born in a hospital, and having a birth certificate is essential for obtaining a driver's license, passport and other identification documents. The fees and requirements for obtaining vital records vary slightly by state, but, regardless of where you live, there are some universal guidelines to remember if you're trying to replace a lost birth certificate, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. In most states, birth documents issued by hospitals and not state or county offices are not considered official records and probably could not be accepted for identification purposes.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the following information should be included in a request for birth records, no matter what state you live in:

  1. Full name of person whose record is requested.
  2. Sex.
  3. Parents' names, including maiden name of mother.
  4. Month, day and year of birth.
  5. Place of birth (city or town, county, and state; and name of hospital, if known).
  6. Purpose for which copy is needed.
  7. Relationship to the person whose record you are requesting, even if it is yourself.
  8. Daytime telephone number with area code.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, some requirements vary by state. In New York, for example, the fee for a certified copy of your birth certificate is £19, and applicants are also required to include a government-issued photograph. In California, the fee is £9, no photograph is required in the mailed application, and the applicant is required to provide a notarised sworn statement. In Texas, applications can be completed over the Internet with the use of a credit card for the £14 transaction. For a breakdown of different requirements by state, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w.htm

  • According to the National Center for Health Statistics, some requirements vary by state.
  • In New York, for example, the fee for a certified copy of your birth certificate is £19, and applicants are also required to include a government-issued photograph.

In some states, Homeland Security measures in recent years have prompted state Department of Motor Vehicles and county clerk's office personnel to heighten their scrutiny of birth certificates when applicants apply for driver's licenses or passports. In New York state, for example, workers in county DMV and clerk's offices were previously instructed to accept only birth certificate documents that had raised seals, and for a limited time birth certificates that did not include the word "registration" were denied, according to a Feb. 4, 2003, article in the Syracuse, NY, Post-Standard. Hospital-issued "birth certificates" were also increasingly rejected, forcing applicants to contact the state vital statistics office for certified copies of their official birth certificate.