2004-11-12 Web

Google saves the day! 😄 I need a birth-certificate for my father. I was born in Iceland and lost it. Called the honorary consulate in ZĂŒrich, they told me to call the embassy in Berlin, and they told me to call 00354 528 1000, but that number was out of order. Now what? How do I Google for an Icelandic institution whose name is probably not English? We’ll try anyway: the search results led me to the web pages of the British Embassy in Iceland, section “Birth and death registration”. And there it mentions the name of the institution I need: Hagstofa Íslands (Statistics Iceland). Further search results led me to a site, switched to English, clicken on “Register of Persons”, and there you go: An email address! Ok, so I wrote that mail.

Oh and at the bottom of the page I see “Statistics Iceland | BorgartĂșni 21a | 150 ReykjavĂ­k Telephone: **528 1000** | Fax: 528 1099 | E-mail: information@statice.is” → the phone number they gave me in Germany must have been correct, then! Strangely enough, however, the phone number listed in the section “How to contact the National Registry” is “+(354) 569 2950”. Hm... Maybe they forgot to update some of the phone numbers, or 528 1000 is central services... Oh well.

How out of order was it? Maybe there are some limitations on the communication channel between swiss an iceland and the network was just full. (I used to have these kinds of problems in the past though this kind of thing hasn’t happened to me for sometimes now)

You are probably right. We used to have that between Switzerland and Portugal in the 80s... It hasn’t happened to me in a long time, either. So long, in fact, that I didn’t even consider that possibility. Doesn’t matter – for now we have – tadaaa! – *Email*!! 😄

And it worked, too. They will send me a birth certificate at no charge. Strangely enough, it will not have a first name on it.

I asked:

This is unexpected. 😄 I was registered without a name? If so, then I guess there is nothing we can do about it, right? So I will gladly take the certificate without my name on it.

She replied:

Yes, it looks like either you weren’t christened here in Iceland or we never got the report. I’ll send you the certificate, no charge.

Eek, heathens don’t get their names added to the birth certificate? Weird!

​#Web

Comments

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Warum fragst du nicht Mama? Die hat doch sicher eine Geburtsurkunde oder nicht???

– Steffi 2004-11-12 18:41 UTC

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Ich glaube nicht... Ich habe die leider selber verschlammt, wenn ich mich recht erinnere. Ich habe zwar eine französische Übersetzung des Originals, das Original selber ist aber verschollen.

– Alex Schroeder 2004-11-12 20:46 UTC

Alex Schroeder

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Jetzt sehe ich erst, was du alles durchgemacht hast um das Formular zu bestellen!!! Das Original von dem Faerdingarheimili hast du noch?

– Helmut Schroeder 2004-11-14 19:12 UTC

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Klaro, ich erinnere mich ĂŒbrigens dass die Leute hier vom österreichischen Konsulat das Dokument ĂŒberhaupt nicht gerne akzeptierten und sagten, dass es das nĂ€chste Mal aber kein Hebammen-Schein sondern eine richtige Geburtsurkunde sein mĂŒsse! 😄

– Alex Schroeder 2004-11-14 19:16 UTC

Alex Schroeder