For years, my husband and I have been trying to answer a question that no one seems able to explain.
According to the Florida officials we’ve spoken with, changing a birth certificate is not something that can simply be done by request. Florida law requires a court order signed by a judge before certain changes can be made to a birth certificate, including changes involving paternity or adoption. Likewise, an adoption requires legal proceedings, the necessary consents required by law, and a final court order signed by a judge. So why do we have a certified birth certificate that appears to show otherwise?
Our situation began with a child born in 1992. According to the original court order from March 1993, my husband was not listed as the child’s father. Instead, the child’s biological father was identified, DNA testing established paternity, and the court ordered him to pay child support. Officials also told us they have no additional court orders on file concerning this child beyond the original March 1993 order.
We searched Florida court records looking for any later order that would explain how my husband’s name eventually appeared on the birth certificate. We found no record of an adoption, no order changing paternity, and no judge’s order directing Florida Vital Statistics to amend the birth certificate.
Yet sometime between 1995 and 1996, the child’s birth certificate appears to have been changed. We know the approximate time because the child began attending school using my husband’s last name, rather than her father’s last name reflected in the original 1993 court documents.
Even more confusing is that we possess two certified copies of the amended birth certificate. In September 2010, my husband personally went to the Florida Vital Statistics Office and obtained a certified copy. Because he was able to obtain that certified record, it would appear that he was recognized in their system as the child’s father.
If that information is accurate, it raises serious questions.
How was the birth certificate changed?
Who authorized the change?
Where is the court order that Florida officials say should exist?
If no court order exists, why does a certified birth certificate exist showing different information?
These are questions we have been trying to answer for years.
We are seeking an explanation for what appears to be a significant discrepancy between the official court records and the birth certificate that was issued by the State of Florida.
Public records should tell a consistent story. In our case, they do not.
Our goal is simple: to uncover the truth and understand how an official state record could have been changed when, according to the very agency responsible for maintaining those records, such a change should not have been possible without a judge’s signed court order.
The child’s last name.
That single detail changes throughout the records, and it’s one of the many questions I’ve been trying to understand. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.
But as the years go by, the records become increasingly difficult to understand.
From the earlier court orders through the child support records, the child’s surname changes depending on the document.
For example:
• Court records from the early 1990s identify the child with the surname A*******, her mother’s maiden name.
• A birth certificate issued in 2005 lists the surname as B****, my husbands name.
• The certified birth certificate issued in 2010 also lists the surname as B***.
• Child support printouts from 2011 and 2014 list the surname as A*******.
• Other court documents, including records from 2004 and 2013, identify her as B****.
So which record is correct?
Why does the child’s surname appear to change depending on which document you’re reading?
Those are questions that have never been answered.
Another question is how my husband’s name came to appear on the birth certificate in the first place.
Someone who knew both my husband and his ex-wife years ago told me they personally witnessed the ex-wife sign my husband’s name to what they described as an “open” birth certificate and submit it for filing, believing “it’ll be fine.”
If true, it would raise serious legal questions. If false, there should be documentation explaining how the birth certificate was lawfully amended.
Either way, there should be an answer.
As I continue posting records, you’ll see another pattern emerge.
Whenever child support records show payments attributed to my husband for this child, the surname used is consistently B****.
One document that stands out is a motion for child support filed by the ex-wife in 2003. Interestingly, this child was not included in that motion. However, by the time the final judgment of divorce was entered, she was listed as a child of the marriage.
My goal isn’t to tell people what to think.
It’s to lay out the documents, follow the timeline, and ask the questions that, after all these years, still haven’t been answered.
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