Does My Friend Need To Keep Her Birth Certificate After She Changed Her Name 55 Years Ago And Has Passport, Real Id, Etc With Her Current Name?

My dear friend (73 y/o, US citizen) is a survivor of sexual abuse by her father starting at 12 years old. He would also threaten to kill her every time she made moves to leave. When she was 18, able to escape and go to college, she needed to prevent her father from finding her, so she legally changed her name completely and moved far away.

Recently, she has been making end of life plans and cleaning out not just items but also papers with an eye to making it very easy for her executor and other folks who survive her to handle her possessions, accounts, and other matters. When going through a box of very old papers she ran across her birth certificate and other papers with her old name, and as you can imagine this has brought up a lot of feelings and PTSD about her abusive childhood.

She shredded the other papers with her old name, but she did keep her birth certificate. However, she really really wants to shred it as well. It would be extremely therapeutic to be able to exorcise that final tie to her tragic past, and she does not want the executor or anyone else knowing her old name or ask questions about why she changed it.

She can't think of any reason to keep the birth certificate as she has solid ID otherwise including a passport. On the other hand, it seems to me that shredding it may be a big mistake in case it is needed. But I can't think of any scenario where she *would* need it.

Can anyone advise on whether or not my friend can get peace of mind by destroying this last vestige of her horrific past without causing potential trouble by needing the BC at some point for some reason?

Thanks everybody. My friend is an amazing, strong woman and I'd love to see her get as much relief as possible.