How to Know What Time You Were Born for Your Birth Chart

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Astrologer Julia Topaz suggests the best places to check for your birth time

Co-authored by Elaine Heredia, BA Reviewed by Julia Topaz

Last Updated: April 2, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Finding Your Time of Birth
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• Rectifying Your Birth Chart
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• Video
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• Q&A

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If you're into astrology, knowing your birth time can help you create an accurate birth chart. But parents sometimes forget their children's birth times, or they never think to mention it to them. If you're unaware of what time you were born, we'll help you find out! wikiHow partnered with astrologers to discover the best ways to look up your time of birth. We’ll also explain how to rectify your birth chart in case all other methods for finding your birth time fail.

How can you find out what time you were born?

Astrologer Julia Topaz says to ask your mother what time you were born, but cautions that birth times from memory can be off by 1-2 hours. Confirm by checking your baby book or family records. If that fails, ask the health department or vital records office in your birthplace for a copy of your birth certificate.

Steps

Section 1 of 2:

How to Find Your Time of Birth

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1. 
   1
   Ask your parents or dig through your family records. Topaz recommends asking your mother for your time of birth, but she cautions that "birth times from memory can be off by 1-2 hours." In that case, she says, "a baby book might also have the information." Your parents or guardians may also have stored your original birth certificate in the family archives, a home safe, or a safety deposit box at the bank.

   • Other places to check for your birth time or your birth certificate are your family Bible (if your family has one), photo albums, and memory boxes.

   Meet the wikiHow Experts

   Julia Topaz is an astrologer who owns her own practice. She integrates psychology with astrology and focuses on what chart patterns say about a person's psyche.

   KJ Atlas is an astrologer, astrocartographer, and business coach. She specializes in business and travel advisory, relationship compatibility, and lifestyle strategy.
2. 
   2
   Request a birth certificate with the birth time from the government. If you don't have your original birth certificate, you can usually request a copy from the health department or vital records office in the county, province, or state where you were born. You may need to provide multiple forms of identification, as well as pay a fee. Always mention that you are specifically looking for a record of your birth time. Start your quest with one of the following links, matching the country of your birth:

   • United States
   • Canada
   • England or Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
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3. 
   3
   Ask the hospital where you were born for records. As a last resort, try checking the records department of the hospital where your mother gave birth. Contact the hospital by phone, email, or by visiting in person, and ask to see any records that may list the time of your birth. You may need to provide one or more forms of identification.
4. 
   4
   Rectify your birth chart to find the time you were born. "If you don't know your birth time," says astrologer KJ Atlas, "there are some astrologers who do what's called a birth chart rectification, and they can narrow down pretty specifically the time that you were born based on the questions that they ask you." We'll also walk you through the process of rectifying your birth chart by yourself below!
5. 
   5
   Find out whether you need your exact birth time for your birth chart. Astrologers typically use your birth date, time, and other personal details to construct a birth chart. This chart, allegedly, shows how the planets and stars aligned on the date of your birth and predicts your future. If you're not sure what your birth time is, your birth chart may be based on incorrect information. That means its predictions could be inaccurate! Try the online calculators below to find out how likely it is that parts of your birth chart are correct:

   • Moon signs for Western astrology or Vedic astrology
   • Zodiac sign of your ascendant
   • Solar arc
   • Dasha predictions
   • Tip: When using the calculators, enter the number of hours you think your birth time guess could be off by. That might be "3" if you only know the general time of day, or "12" if you don't know your birth time at all.
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Section 2 of 2:

How to Rectify Your Birth Chart to Find the Birth Time

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1. 
   1
   Create a birth chart with your best guess for your birth time. This birth chart doesn't have to have much detail, since it will just be a starting point. If you don't know your birth time at all, make the chart as though you were born at noon. If you know your birth time was between 4:00 AM and 8:30 AM, make the chart for 6:15 AM.

   • Generate a free birth chart at Astrology.com!
2. 
   2
   Make predictions based on the birth chart. Use planetary transits, solar arcs, and other astrology techniques to map out predictions based on your hypothetical birth chart. We recommend consulting a real astrologer for this step. Here are some techniques they may use, based on how quickly the astrological bodies move through the chart:

   • Any solar arcs except the Ascendant, Midheaven, and Moon.
   • Transits for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Lunar Nodes. If you're confident of your birthday, add the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars.
3. 
   3
   Write down a list of major events in your life so far. Note as many major events in your life as come to mind. You'll also need a year, a date, and preferably a time for each one. Traumatic events and accidents are the most useful, but you should also include marriage, divorce, childbirth, change of employment, and other significant occurrences.
4. 
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   Compare the birth chart predictions to your actual life events. If they match, then you can be reasonably sure the birth time you selected is accurate! If they don't, try re-entering your personal details and changing the birth time until you find predictions that match your life so far more closely. Additionally, here are a few techniques that experienced astrologers use to rectify your birth chart:

   • Eliminate events that can be explained by natal planetary connections. Look at the remaining events, and see whether they are concentrated when celestial bodies arrive at specific degrees. Those degrees could correspond to your Ascendant and Midheaven, if the positions work out.
   • Compare recent outer planet (Jupiter through Pluto) transits to recent life events, to see which house appears to influence you.
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• Question

  How do you get a copy of your birth certificate?

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor
  Staff Answer

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  It depends on your birth state how you need to request one and what kind of identification documents you will need to provide. Contact the vital records office of the state where you were born or their website for the details.

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• Question

  Are birth records public information?

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor
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  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  This will depend on your particular state. In some states they are public and in others are private. Also depending on the state, if the person was adopted their birth records may have been sealed to protect the identity of the birth parents.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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• Question

  Where was I born?

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor
  Staff Answer

  This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

  

  wikiHow Staff Editor

  Staff Answer

  If you can find or obtain a copy of your birth certificate, it will have this information on it.

  Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
  Thank you for your feedback.
  If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow

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