# When did they begin putting a specific minute of the day on birth and death certificates?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-begin-putting-a-specific-minute-of-the-day-on-birth-and-death-certificates/828521
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 28, 2019, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-begin-putting-a-specific-minute-of-the-day-on-birth-and-death-certificates/828521 "2019-01-28T03:30:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-begin-putting-a-specific-minute-of-the-day-on-birth-and-death-certificates/828521/21 "2019-01-31T16:14:07Z")
> [@bump](#):
>
> One’s the actual time the baby came out of its mother, and the other is the time it was actually filed in the city/county/state system officially.
>
> To use an example of why they might differ, a child could be born at say… 9 pm at night, and the birth won’t get recorded until the following day. Or on a Saturday, and recorded the following Monday, for example.
>
> Or they may just batch them up and fill out the paperwork a couple times a week or so in a smaller hospital. Here in Texas, _"The person required to file a birth certificate shall file the certificate not later than the fifth day after the date of the birth._", and the person required is either the doctor, midwife or hospital administration person in the majority of births.
That’s exactly the situation I do understand- where there is a field for date of birth and a field for date filed and they are not the same. The one I don’t understand is " My birth certificate says I was \*born \*March 2, but I celebrate on the date I was actually born , February 27 ( which apparently is not mentioned on my birth certificate at all) "
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### Author:  [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-they-begin-putting-a-specific-minute-of-the-day-on-birth-and-death-certificates/828521/22 "2019-01-31T17:03:31Z")
My mother was born in 1931, at home with a midwife present and the time was recorded. The midwife was a neighbor lady who just did that sort of thing, not anyone with a license - if there even were midwife licenses back then. But the birth wasn’t officially recorded until a month(give or take a couple of days) later. My guess is that they were scheduling her Christening and only thought about filing the paperwork with the city when Father Whosit asked about it.
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