The New York City Law Department tells the New York Post it's reviewing the case of Albert Higgins of Livingston Manor.
He discovered while trying to renew a driver's license that there was no birth certificate under his name.
The 67-year-old says that in 1995, his dying mother revealed she bought him from a Bronx neighbor. He says an old handwritten note contained his birth parents' names.
Higgins says a birth certificate exists under the name Garry Swingle. His goal is to be legally recognized under that name, then get a birth certificate with the name he's always used.