Continued from Lies, damned lies, and statistics (Part 1).
In this part we examine a claim by authors Johannson and Crosby at The Daily Pen in their article: Vital Records Indicate Obama Not Born in Hawaii Hospital (Part 3) that there is a program in place where foreign governments report overseas births of children to US residents back to the US, where these births were registered in the United States as if those children had been born there (and thereby invalidating all birth certificates as evidence of citizenship by virtue of birth in the United States). They write:
Foreign Birth Transcript Exchange
Beginning in 1937, four years after the establishment of the standard U.S. vital statistics registration area, the Vital Statistics of the United States Report published the first natal statistics which were provided from thousands of transcripts exchanged between foreign-based vital records offices and domestic Vital Records offices in the U.S. [this is not true]
…
One such table of this data can be seen in the Vital Statistics of the U.S. Report in 1945 which shows there were 52,269 “Resident Transcripts” added to the natal statistics data in the U.S. while the balance of the same number of non-resident transcripts were subtracted. These transcripts were those natal statistics from births which occurred outside of the United States, but which were reported (on the U.S. “Certificate of Live Birth”), filed and allocated to a place of residence in the U.S. The table explicitly cites under footnote 1 that these transcripts include “allocations of births which occurred outside of the United States.” [this is not true either]
and I reproduce their “illustration” below:

What’s wrong with this picture? It’s a fake. The original is in Vital Statistics of the United States – 1945 – Part II Natality and Mortality Data for the United States Tabulated by Place of Residence, PDF Page 8 (VIII in the document). Here’s what it really looks like (and I have to split this into two parts because in the original, the footnote doesn’t appear directly under the United States totals).


Johannson and Crosby’s illustration says, “Includes allocations outside of United States.” The original says, “Includes allocations outside of continental United States.”
So precisely what are those allocations outside of continental United States? Japan?? Indonesia??? KENYA??????
For the answer, turn back three pages to page 5:
The tabulations published in both part I and part II are compiled from the same source material, being derived from transcripts of original birth and death certificates received from registration officials of States and cities, and of the outlying territories and possessions of the United States.
This statistical table shows primarily children of residents of one state born in another, but it also includes “outlying territories and possessions of the United States.” The government has never included foreign births as part of the national statistics.
To try to win an argument by faking evidence is a shameful thing, and this is not the first time Johannson and Crosby have been caught red handed. One can only wonder at their motives.
Summarizing Parts 1 and 2 of this series:
- Birth certificates are, by law, prima facie evidence of the facts on them, not conveniently adjusted fiction to help statisticians.
- Births registered in Hawaii in 1961 were, by law, births that occurred only in Hawaii.
- Foreign births to US Residents were not reported to the NCHS in 1961.
- Johannson and Crosby lied.
PS: Yes, I’ve already printed out a copy of Johannson’s page.
Recent Comments