Who Are You Anyhow?
I received a confirmation of my appointment with the Social Security Administration down in Wilkesboro on May 13 at 1:00 pm. In the list of required proofs that I should bring to complete my claim, the only item was "Bank statement or checkbook for the account where you would like the payment deposited". However, in the call I made to establish the appointment, I was instructed to bring my birth certificate.
In preparation for the appointment, I ordered a true copy of my birth certificate by downloading a form off the Forsyth County Web site, filling in the required information, signing the form to, in effect, say "I swear I am me" and mailing it with a check for $10 to the Register of Deeds. For this I will receive a true copy (complete with embossed stamp and "good for any legal purpose") of the birth certificate for one Dave Lineback, a white boy and legitimate child of Lewis William and Goldie Mickey Lineback born on June 26, 1946 at the Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, NC.
Now what bothers me about all this is that anybody with $10 and a $0.41 stamp could obtain said birth certificate of said Dave Lineback and, with a duplicate of the said check used to order said birth certificate, could march on down to the Social Security office in Wilkesboro and say "Here I is!"
How are they to know I ain't who I said I is? All they "know" is that someone who looks like a white boy of about the right age and bearing a birth certificate for Dave Lineback, a check with his name on and the appointment confirmation has, in fact, shown up for the appointment. Hell, I just as easily could be Large or Sparky or The Donald or any other white boy of about the right age.
I suppose that's why victims of identity theft have so much trouble in reestablishing their legal identity. About the only sure means of identity would be a DNA sample taken at the time of birth and maintained with the birth certificate down in the Register of Deeds office. But, alas, DNA testing had not been invented in 1946 and, I suppose, the folks at the Social Security office will just have to make do with what they have.
And another thing. Just how do they know I ain't dead?
Maybe they will ask!
PS: Exactly where along the umbilical cord does your mother's DNA end and yours begin anyhow?
In preparation for the appointment, I ordered a true copy of my birth certificate by downloading a form off the Forsyth County Web site, filling in the required information, signing the form to, in effect, say "I swear I am me" and mailing it with a check for $10 to the Register of Deeds. For this I will receive a true copy (complete with embossed stamp and "good for any legal purpose") of the birth certificate for one Dave Lineback, a white boy and legitimate child of Lewis William and Goldie Mickey Lineback born on June 26, 1946 at the Baptist Hospital in Winston Salem, NC.
Now what bothers me about all this is that anybody with $10 and a $0.41 stamp could obtain said birth certificate of said Dave Lineback and, with a duplicate of the said check used to order said birth certificate, could march on down to the Social Security office in Wilkesboro and say "Here I is!"
How are they to know I ain't who I said I is? All they "know" is that someone who looks like a white boy of about the right age and bearing a birth certificate for Dave Lineback, a check with his name on and the appointment confirmation has, in fact, shown up for the appointment. Hell, I just as easily could be Large or Sparky or The Donald or any other white boy of about the right age.
I suppose that's why victims of identity theft have so much trouble in reestablishing their legal identity. About the only sure means of identity would be a DNA sample taken at the time of birth and maintained with the birth certificate down in the Register of Deeds office. But, alas, DNA testing had not been invented in 1946 and, I suppose, the folks at the Social Security office will just have to make do with what they have.
And another thing. Just how do they know I ain't dead?
Maybe they will ask!
PS: Exactly where along the umbilical cord does your mother's DNA end and yours begin anyhow?
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