My grandpa is 98 years old?

You need to contact the city clerk where he was born.

However, don't be so sure about birth certificates. My Mom was born long before him, she did not have a birth certificate until in her 50s when she was told that she had to have one to renew her driver's license. Even today there are people born at home, and no birth certificate.

Just remember that the Allies bombed the heck out of Germany both in WWI & WWII, so expect records to have been destroyed. If there was one.

But, unless you are trying to join some organization/group that requires birth certificates as proof, don't worry about it. One of my grandmother's had a birth/marriage/death certificate, and all 3 were incorrect, as well as the name on her tombstone.

Get all the information you can from him and also check Smitt, in Germany. If he has a passport then use that to get what you need for his birth records, you may only find his parents on a census, or land records. Unless he was born in a hospital there probably was no record of his birth recorded until the next census or he got his passport.

http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/05__Lega...

Not sure why you are disputing him. Even in the states..SC didn't require birth registration until 1915. Texas, 1903. IF he had one, the above is how to locate it.

Before birth and death certificates, the standard "registration" was a church document, ie baptism or such. Not legally required. He does have a passport and id, which is valid.

It is great that you are recording his life experiences. BE SURE to ask who his parents/ grandparents were, and the exact locations in Germany, so you can follow up on his ancestry as well.

Grandpa is right, they really didn't have birth certificates back then, not even in Germany. What they did have are baptismal records. That one you can get very easily. Ask him for the name of the church where he was baptized and also ask him for the names of his parents and the name of the church/date of marriage for his parents. Then you can contact that church back in Germany and ask for certificates of his baptism and of his parents' marriage.

The next thing you can do is write a letter for him to sign requesting a copy of his Declaration of Intent and Naturalization petition and submit it to the National Archives. For a nominal fee, they'll copy the whole application and petition and send it to you.

The National Archives office in St Louis Mo will also get you a copy of his military records. If you contact a military recruiting center in your town, they can put you in touch with the local Veteran's Affairs director. He or she will be able to download everything for you and get it in time for his birthday. They can get you everything from a copy of his enlistment documents to a chronology of his training and any battles he saw to where/when he was mustered out. If you contact your local historical society, they can help you get photos of what the town looked like throughout the years.

He may have at least the baptismal records from the church in the town were he was born. the Mormons may also have his birth and baptismal records because they were over in Germany and Poland in the 1920s and 1930s microfilming records.

Microfilm was kind of new at that time and they offered to microfilm records for free if they were allowed to keep a copy of the microfilm. They have copies of millions of records that were destroyed in WWII.

Surely he would need some kind of Birth Certificate to get a Passport, or you should be able to get some sort of record.

What about any record of his Parents?

Well done to him anyway!!

you grandpa sounds like a hoot! =)

You can always do online research for heritage but as for his birth certificate?

I don't think you are going to find that but at least you had his other ID's =)

Good luck and God bless him =D

Contact the town hall of the city where he was born.

Though, if it was that long ago, they may not have those records anymore, but it's worth a try.

you have to go over to germany and find the area he lived in like a county and go to the court and hospital for it they have it saved