My great-grandmother was born in Philadelphia in 1872- I have the exact date. At the time her family lived in Twaddles Court which is now known as Ludlow.
Where can I find a copy of her birth certificate? Without knowing where she was christened ( but she would have been) how can I find out whether the places of worship close to Twaddles Court where she may have been christened are still standing?
Finally my daughter is visiting Philadelphia in November. If she was to use a record office or research facility would she require proof that she is descended from my great-grandmother in order to search?
Thank you

The best place to start for a copy of the bc is with the Archives: there's a FAQ page here that will tell you what you can do over distance or by visiting:

http://www.phila.gov/Records/Archives/FAQ.html

The Main Library on the Parkway is also a good spot for researching; I've gone through census records and telephone directories there in various searches.

For Ludlow, have you tried Mapquest or similar with the street address (if you know it, of course)? The area now called Ludlow is, I believe, between 5th and 10th Streets, Girard Ave and Cecil B Moore Ave. Usually you can get a list of the places of worship as a list for an area.

As far as I know (but it's been a while since I did any research, so a phone call to the agency(s) in question wouldn't hurt) you can research anyone you like! The Pennsylvania Historical Society is another good resource if your daughter is visiting.

Thank you!

I would contact the Philadelphia Historical Society.

The Pennsylvania Historical Society (located in a beautiful building on Locust Street, for those who would like to visit) is indeed helpful and has online searchable databases, so would probably be the best bet for finding the churches in Ludlow.
But I'm thinking the birth certificates would be more likely to be at the archives, as they're government documents?

Not sure if you are Catholic but the Archidiocese has a repository for records from parishes that have closed. I also recall that their website has a list of parishes, including ones that have closed, by vicariate. A phone call to the archidiocesan archives (or maybe to the archivist at Old St. Joe's parish-- the oldest parish in Philadelphia-- in Society Hill) might give some leads.

If you find any good resources, could you come back to post and let us know?

For PA birth records, try the state office at http://tinyurl.com/je9e .