When a 76-year-old woman is being denied a birth certificate, something is definitely broken in Tennessee government. 

 I received notification on Friday that Annie Ruth Brown has yet to receive a birth certification from the state of Tennessee. Her plight was featured in a September 2019 article written by yours truly. While I’m not suffering from delusions of grandeur thinking that my article would prompt a quick solution from the state to rectify the situation, I had hoped it would help spur some helpful action. 

Brown’s situation began when she requested a birth certificate which was needed to obtain a photo ID. Blind since birth, Mrs. Brown needed that ID so she could apply for public assistance. 

The Tennessee Department of Health’s Division of Vital Records and Statistics denied her request for a birth certificate due to inaccurate information on Ancestry.com about her place of birth. 

“We have received a Social Security numident that states Annie’s name is ‘Annie Ruth Brown,’ her date of birth as ‘11/17/44’ and her place of birth as ‘Woodbury Cannon County TN.’ We have received an Ancestry.com fact sheet that states Annie’s name as ‘Annie Ruth Brown,’ her date of birth as ‘11/17/44’ and her place of birth as ‘Warren County TN.’”

That written notice came from Angela Coulter from the Special Services Vital Records division at the Tennessee Department of Health and was dated Aug. 26, 2019. 

My attempts to contact Coulter were unsuccessful.

While I understand some people love digging into their ancestral past and using online services like Ancestry.com, I’m not a fan of those sites, or the records within them. The information can be less than 100% accurate. Mrs. Brown discovered that the hard way. 

Brown’s niece, Linda Wilkerson, says a relative, whose identity is unknown, may have believed Brown was born in Warren County due to her mailing address being Morrison, Tenn.

“A lot of people in the outlying areas of a county have that same situation,” said Wilkerson. “She was born in the house she currently resides in. That house is in Cannon County, but her mailing address is Morrison, Tenn. Someone must have believed that her mailing address was her place of residency. It is not.”

How can information placed on a privately held online company be used to block someone from receiving their birth certificate? That would have been the question I asked Coulter if she responded to my calls. 

Along with being notified that Mrs. Brown has yet to receive a birth certificate, I was told that Gov. Bill Lee will be the next stop in a local effort to help this woman. 

Here’s my question to Gov. Lee: What’s more important than helping a 76-year-old Tennessee native obtain a copy of her birth certificate? I can answer that question, if needed.

Standard reporter Lisa Hobbs can be reached at 473-2191.