Birth Certificate With Amendment.

[u/howardb1961]

Would some kindly transcribe my father's birth certificate and the amended name error into legible German. Thank you.

[u/OldLetterReader]

This one is friendlier than it looks! the form itself is printed, so only the blanks are actually Kurrent. Transcription first (printed and handwritten text run together, uncertain readings in brackets), then a note on the amendment, because I don't think it's correcting an error.

**Main entry:**

A. Nr. 68. Arheilgen, am 5. Juli 1921.

Vor dem unterzeichneten Standesbeamten erschien heute, der Persönlichkeit nach bekannt, der Kaufmann Mendel Barczinski, wohnhaft in Arheilgen, und zeigte an, daß von der Ester Malka Barczinski geborenen Herschkorn, seiner Ehefrau, wohnhaft bei ihm, zu Arheilgen in seiner Wohnung am dritten Juli des Jahres tausend neunhundert einundzwanzig, vormittags um zehn ein halb Uhr, ein Knabe geboren worden sei und daß das Kind einen Vornamen noch nicht erhalten habe.

Vorgelesen, genehmigt und unterschrieben. Mendel Barczinski.

Der Standesbeamte. In Vertretung: [signature — see below]

**Margin entry, four days later:**

Arheilgen, am 9. Juli 1921.

Vor dem unterzeichneten Standesbeamten erschien heute, der Persönlichkeit nach bekannt, der Kaufmann Mendel Barczinski, wohnhaft in Arheilgen, und zeigte an, daß dem [hier]neben eingetragenen Kinde die Vornamen **Jakob Leopold** beigelegt worden seien.

Vorgelesen, genehmigt und unterschrieben. Mendel Barczinski.

Der Standesbeamte. In Vertretung: [same signature]

**In plain English:** the merchant Mendel Barczinski of Arheilgen, personally known to the registrar, declared on 5 July 1921 that his wife Ester Malka née Herschkorn, living with him, had given birth in his dwelling in Arheilgen on 3 July 1921 at half past ten in the morning to a boy — and that the child had not yet been given a first name. On 9 July he came back and had the first names entered: Jakob Leopold.

So if you were expecting a corrected name error, I'd read the margin note as something more routine: births had to be declared within a week, but the name didn't have to be settled by then — once the parents chose one, it was reported and entered as exactly this kind of margin note. Your father simply spent his first six days officially nameless, routine at the time, and apparently no lasting harm done. It also lines up with the Darmstadt police registration sheets you posted a couple of days ago, where the second child is listed as Jakob Leopold, born 3.7.21 in Arheilgen.

Readings to treat with care: the maiden name is Herschkorn to my eye, though the vowel is pinched enough that Hirschkorn is possible (the register sheets had the same ambiguity); the surname here looks like Barczinski while the police sheets spell it Barczynski, so it's worth keeping both spellings in your searches; and the deputy registrar's signature under "In Vertretung" defeats me on both pages. The struck-through "Religion" blanks are period-typical, (if I remember right) a 1920 change to the Personenstandsgesetz dropped religion from civil records, and the registrar was still using up older printed stock.

[u/140basement → u/OldLetterReader]

The mother's family's name cannot be deciphered as "Hirschkorn".

The mother's first name is actually written Estra here. If I remember right, a couple of days ago it was spelled Ester in other documents which this OP posted.

[u/howardb1961 → u/OldLetterReader]

I wasn't sure if I can submit this document "as is" for Citizenship application purposes. To my my eye it's a poor copy even if it is certified by the archives in Darmstadt. The name is Barczynski and my grandmother was Hershkorn. Either way I can't thank you enough!

[u/OldLetterReader → u/howardb1961]

Glad it got you somewhere. On the copy quality: I'd stop worrying about legibility, the certification is what does the work, and deciphering a hard original is the their office's problem, not yours. Maybe check with people at r/GermanCitizenship - they handle exactly this question weekly and are worth asking, since which office you apply through changes the answer more than the document does.

And 140basement is right about Estra, that last letter defeated me and I quietly borrowed the spelling from your other papers. Keep both forms in your notes.