Why would the filing date of a birth certificate be prior to the date of birth? My grandmother's birth certificate states her date of birth as December 21, 1914. At the bottom there are two dates. One appears to be a...--prophetes.ai

Why would the filing date of a birth certificate be prior to the date of birth? My grandmother's birth certificate states her date of birth as December 21, 1914. At the bottom there are two dates. One appears to be a filing date, and the other I am not sure I understand the meaning of. How can there be dates on this record before her date of birth? What do these other dates mean? ![Frances Marion Nottingham Certificate of Birth](

As commented by @shoover:

> I think the date is Dec 2. Look at the "I hereby certify..." near the bottom of the page.

and if it is Dec 2 then, unlike Dec 21, that is before and not after the other two dates of Dec 14 and Dec 18.

The date you have read as Dec 21 appears to me like it could possibly be a 2 with a long upstroke at its end that just looks like a following 1.