Dad had to apply for a passport. He did all his paper work and sent in the application. He was expecting to receive a pass port in the mail. A letter came and it did not contain a passport. There was letter that said, "Mr. Kline, we have never heard of you!"
Dad was amazed. He had filed income tax forms for at least thirty years. Dad gathered information to prove who he was and sent it off. He used his school attendance record and I think a baptismal certificate. This time the passport came.
Now it's quite a shock to hear from your government that they have never heard of you. Dad thought it was a hoot.
One answer this gave to him was that during he war all of Dad's friends received a letter inviting them to join the forces and fight in the second world War. Dad never got a letter. Now he knew why. The government had never heard of him.
Most people Dad's age did not have birth certificates. First Dad thought that his Dad had failed to register him when he was born. Dad was born in harvest time and he thought his Dad had maybe for got to get the paperwork done.
In Canada, the provinces register the births and then pass the information on to the Federal Govt. What Dad didn't know is that in Saskatchewan the birth registrations from 1910 to 1912 mysteriously disappeared. Dad was in this group. The federal government was never informed of his birth.
Only my Dad could take this situation in a humorous way and tell me about it so that I wouldn't forget it..
