Jefferson's letter is a great find! It gives a good springboard from which to further our understanding about usufruct, and trust in general. But I think the particular language we use is more important because, since these concepts are so ethereal - some even sublime - the more precise our language is, the better prepared we become for understanding.
It appears to me that usufruct is the right to use a thing, nothing more or less. A trustee is one who has a fiduciary responsibility to exercise his usufruct for the benefit of another - beneficiary. That being stated, in the case of the birth registration and certification, the usufruct is only one aspect of the property subject to the trust. No one can rightfully dispute that the parents of an infant are the creators of the infant in a temporal sense, for without either one, the infant would not come into being.
Therefore it follows that, when the mother (or, as you mentioned, another person having been notified a birth has occurred) causes the birth to be registered, it is she who is voluntarily consenting the infant's information to be recorded, ostensibly for the benefit of the infant. But what if the information (and the right to use it) are granted to the state for the state's benefit? Wouldn't this preclude a trust existing, and render the transaction as a mere contract? And that the infant, while still in the mother's care, in reality remains the subject of a different trust - the express trust created by nature (Providence)?
While all this is interesting to contemplate, it doesn't get to the heart of the matter. In the end, we are still trying to understand what the real relationship is between individual beings and government. If indeed our information is the property subject to a trust, and nowhere is the trust expressed plainly, it behooves us to construct - as best we are able - a trust that will withstand even the most careful scrutiny of reason and the courts.
At the base of the problem is the reality that we are unaware of an express trust being created anywhere having to do with registration of birth. At least, that's the problem I have. All I find is the possibility of an implied trust.
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