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Thursday, November 6, 2025

Copies of a Philadelphia Birth Certificate

Among my paternal grandfather's papers was a copy of his birth certificate. Clifford Lutter was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1915. Below is the paper I found.

Birth certificate of Clifford Lutter born March 18, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Typed reproduction.
Father- Howard Lutter. Mother- Laura Ethel Winterton.
(They lived in Newark, New Jersey. They stayed in Philadelphia briefly.)


I do not know if this very paper is what Clifford received, or if he received a smaller paper and made this copy.

I already had a copy of the birth certificate that I made from microfilm at a Family History Center
Birth certificate of Clifford Lutter born March 18, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Handwritten and stamped March 19, 1915.
Film 2169638.

This film of Philadelphia births has been digitized but is restricted, meaning you cannot view at home. You have to log in at a Family History Center. The process in the past was to order the microfilm, pay a fee, and then wait. Now the process is free and instant- but as long as you can get to a particular physical location.

Note that the birth certificate copied from microfilm is handwritten, while the copy is typed. On the handwritten version, a date is written on top, "2/?/39." This could indicate that a copy was issued on that date. Sure enough, the official copy date on the typed copy is February 6, 1939.

Ancestry has published birth certificates of Philadelphia. Clifford's birth record appears in this collection, but is not the same as the handwritten birth certificate viewed on microfilm all those years ago. This was not easy to find because it is indexed as Sutter with an S, not Lutter with an L.

Birth certificate of Sutter born March 18, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Was there more than one set of Philadelphia birth records? When Clifford requested his birth certificate in 1939, did this trigger an unrecorded correction in spelling from Sutter to Lutter?


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