Restrictions
All records in this series less than 100 years old are restricted under Code State Government Article § 9-1015.

Scope and Content
In October of 1874, Baltimore City's Mayor and City Council passed Ordinance 86, mandating standardized registration of births in the city beginning January 1, 1875. Blank certificates were issued to midwives and physicians, by the Commissioner of Health, requiring them to fill out and return the certificates to the Health Department. Early certificates, for years 1875-1902 provide certificate number, number of child of the mother, sex, race, date of birth, mother and father’s full name and birthplace, father’s occupation, name and address of medical attendant, and any remarks. While the mandate requires inclusion of the child’s name, if given, there is no line item for such until 1903 when the form is revised by the Bureau of Vital Statistics to include it. Certificates do not routinely include the name of the child until 1911. In 1910, further revisions add lines for residence, race, age, and occupation of each parent, the legitimacy of the child (item removed after 1938), the number of children born to this mother including present birth, and number of children born to this mother now living.

The five volumes for series units MSA C6-702 through MSA C6-706 are labeled with certificate number range, and an inexact date range. Each certificate number is prefixed with an "L" before the certificate number. A note in four of the five volumes states the "L" stands for "lost" and were numbered in 1926. These five volumes represent "extra volumes" comprised of certificates that were located or turned in to the department after the original volumes were compiled. The certificates were filed in this manner in order to avoid breaking the sequence of certificate numbers already set, and cover only the years noted. These are the oldest extant paper certificates in the series available here in the State Archives. The whereabouts of the "original volumes" is unknown, but were in existence as late as 1938 when the Historical Records Survey was conducted at the Health Department. For access to images of the original volumes, not listed here, see microfilm MSA CM 1135. Series indexed in MSA CM 1134.