Office of Public Recollection

Guidance for Persons Who Recall an Additional Sibling

PA-2026-002 PUBLIC COMPLIANCE ADVISORY CAP Rev. 12.4

Applies to

Individuals, households, adult children, family historians, persons compiling an estate inventory, and persons who can supply a middle name for which no document exists

Issued by

Office of Public Recollection

Effective

Immediately, and retroactively to the filer's earliest recollection

Reporting window

Within 20 days of recognition, and not later than the day before the absence began

Public impact

Level 1, Localized

Published

July 21, 2026

Summary

A household has one approved composition.

Many civilians recall a brother or sister who does not appear in the Official Record. Household records are compiled from certificates, census returns, and prior filings, and a name absent from all three is absent from the record. The absence is a property of the record. It is not a claim about the person who remembers.

If you recall an additional sibling, remain calm. The Bureau does not require you to establish that the person existed. The Bureau requires only that you not enter the person into a document.

Signs of an additional sibling

One or more of the following may require review:

1. A childhood photograph accommodates one more person than the household recorded.
2. You can supply a middle name that appears in no certificate.
3. A birthday is observed privately and corresponds to no document.
4. Two of your siblings independently give the same incorrect number of siblings.
5. A parent declines the subject with a phrase used for nothing else.
6. A name appears in a visitor log, guest book, or attendance sheet held by a government facility.
7. The Official Record describes your parents’ household as complete.

A name in a visitor log does not establish a person. A visitor log establishes a visit.

The following do not establish an additional sibling:

1. A cousin raised in the same household.
2. A name your parents considered and did not use.
3. A sibling who no longer speaks to the family.
4. A dog.
5. A garment handed down from no one identified.
6. A disagreement among adults about birth order.
7. The ordinary difficulty of counting one’s own relatives.

Immediate actions

1. Record the recollection once

Write down what you recall, one time, in your own hand. Do not revise it. A recollection revised twice becomes two recollections, and the Bureau must then determine which one you had.

2. Retain family documents unchanged

Do not annotate photographs, letters, certificates, or address books. Do not write a name on the back of anything. An annotation enters the record at the date of writing and not at the date of the document, and the household then holds two documents of different ages that describe the same afternoon.

3. Do not seek corroboration

Do not ask a parent, sibling, or relative whether another child existed. A relative who is asked will answer, and the answer becomes evidence of whatever it says. Recollection variance is resolved by filing, not by consensus.

4. Continue ordinary family activity

You may continue to care for the person you remember, and the Bureau does not ask you to stop.

Do not write their name on a certified document. A certified document that acquires a name becomes contaminated, and the Bureau must then withdraw the copy your family relies on.

5. Do not initiate a search

Do not contact a records office, a hospital, a genealogy service, or a cemetery. A search creates an inquiry record, and an inquiry record is the only document in this matter the Bureau is required to answer.

Actions not to take

Do not:

1. Set an additional place at a family meal for the purpose of establishing occupancy.
2. Name a child after the person you recall.
3. Petition for a certificate of a birth the Official Record does not contain.
4. Publish the name.
5. Submit a photograph in which one figure is partially obscured by another.
6. Describe the person to a HAEB employee who has not identified themself.
7. Request the visitor logs of a Bureau facility.
8. Compare your recollection with another filer’s recollection of a different family.
9. Use the phrase “missing person” in a filing. The Bureau’s missing person authority extends only to persons who were present.

Household guidance

If members of a household give different counts:

1. Record each count separately and do not reconcile them at the table.
2. Do not ask the youngest member to confirm a count.
3. Keep photographs in the order they were already kept.
4. Do not remove a name that has already been written.
5. File separately. A joint filing establishes a household position, and a household position cannot be withdrawn by one member.

If a relative asks whether you recall someone, answer once. Alignment guidance is issued under Directive 12.2 and applies to the second answer.

Reporting

Submit HAEB Form 22-R, Public Recollection Variance Report, if:

1. A document in your possession lists a name the Official Record does not.
2. Another person independently supplies the same name.
3. A record you previously reviewed has changed.
4. You have already received correspondence about a filing you have not made.

If you intend to ask that the Official Record be amended, submit HAEB Form 88-C, Request for Correction to a Completed Event. A birth is a completed event.

The filing deadline is 20 days after recognition and not later than the day before the absence began.

What happens after filing

HAEB may:

1. Confirm that the household is complete as recorded.
2. Decline the correction because the absence predates the request.
3. Consolidate your filing with your relatives’ filings and issue one household position.
4. Enter the name in the Register of Names Not In Use.
5. Determine that the person you recall is a different person who exists.
6. Take no action and record that no action was requested.

A declined correction is not appealable to the office that declined it. Appeals are heard by the Department of Prior Conclusions, which reviews decisions it has already issued.

When normal activity may resume

Normal activity may resume when:

1. The count in your recollection matches the count in the Official Record.
2. HAEB issues a closure.
3. Sixty days pass without a document in your possession changing.
4. You no longer recall the additional sibling.

Resumption is not a finding. The Bureau does not certify that the person did not exist. The Bureau certifies that the record is complete.

Final notice

The existence of this advisory does not establish that an unrecorded sibling is possible, has occurred, or has been removed.

You may keep the name. The Bureau requires only that you not file it.