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Adoption Records
| Court Adoption File |
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The court adoption records consist of a number of documents, including the original, unaltered birth certificate, petition to adopt, finalization papers or final decree, consent to adopt from birth parent(s), relinquishment papers, or orders terminating parental rights, and any agency or attorney papers, including information about birth parents. Many of these documents may also be available elsewhere. For instance, adoptive parents should have copies of the court proceedings finalizing the adoption, although the final court order will not provide the names of the birth parents. If this is not available, an adopted person searching for birth parents may be able to contact the attorney or law firm that handled the adoption to obtain it. A petition may also be filed to the court if needed. The final adoption papers should provide the name of the attorney, judge, and agency involved in the proceedings. This information may lead to discovering other useful clues.
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| Other Court Records |
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While most or all of the court records may be officially sealed, in some cases TIPS attempts to locate records from the court's Docket Appearance Book, a daily record of who appeared in court and why on a particular day, or even the Minute Book log, with the results of each court appearance. Also, local newspapers from the time of the adoption may carry a notice of the filing of the Petition to Adopt. There could also be a Notice filed Terminating Parental Rights.
The following documents are usually part of your court file, depending on the circumstances of your adoption:
- Original birth certificate
- Petition to adopt
- Final decree of adoption
- Your adoptive parents home study
- various reports from the agency or lawyer such as initial interview with birthparent(s), their medical history, biographical information
- signed relinquishment (sometimes called consent form)
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| Private or Agency Adoption |
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PRIVATE ADOPTION
In general this term means that your adoptive parents probably arranged to adopt you through a family doctor, family friend, minister, or family member. They would have hired an attorney and the adoption would have been handled through the attorney and finalized in a court of law.
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AGENCY ADOPTION
In an agency adoption, your parents will likely have contacted an agency with their decision to adopt, sometimes they will have been placed on a waiting list, and are matched with a birthmother and/or child who also had contacted or was brought to the agency.
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| Birth Certificates |
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ORIGINAL - When a person is adopted, their original birth certificate in most cases will be sealed in the court file and a new certificate, with all reference to the birthparent(s) names, and the adoptee's original name is removed.
AMENDED - This new certificate, referred to as the 'amended' birth certificate, usually will list your adoptive name and your adoptive parents as your mother and father.
The remaining information, such as addresses, age, occupation, previous births, and race of parents, is usually the information as it applies to your adoptive parents, although mistakes have been known to be made.
The hospital of birth is usually accurate, although that information, too, can be altered and was sometimes done so if the hospital was a maternity home for unwed mothers.
The filing date, depending on the practice of the office issuing the certificate, sometimes remains the filing date of your original, or is sometimes the filing date of the amended, resulting in what several official agencies refer to as a 'delayed' birth certificate.
The original birth certificate of a person adopted at birth or shortly thereafter, often will list the person's name as Baby Girl or Baby Boy, plus the last name of mother at the time of birth. This does not mean that your birthparent(s) did not name you.
If an adoption plan had been made, often the individual taking the information for the birth certificate did not bother to ask, or to respect, the wishes of the birthparent(s). In general, even if your birthfather was named by your birthmother, his name will not appear on your birth certificate if your birthparents were not married at the time, although there have been exceptions.
If your birthmother was married to someone other than your birthfather, usually her name and your last name on the certificate will be her married name, and sometimes her husband will be listed as the father. Again, there are no hard and fast rules, and you should look closely at the information on both the amended and original birth certificates and be willing to dismiss some of it as false or misleading.
The file numbers and/or registry numbers located on the original and amended birth certificates are sometimes the same on both the original and the amended. TIPS knows which states utilizes the same number for both the original and the amended birth certificate.
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| Legal Notices |
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In most places, prospective adoptive parents are required by law to place a legal notice notifying the alleged birthfather of the impending adoption hearing. It is common practice to place these legal notices, even when the birthfather is named and has consented to the adoption, in order to erase all potential for problems later on.
The attorney that represents the potential adopters generally place these legal notices in obscure legal journals. TIPS knows which journal to look in.
Legal Notices sometimes contain absolutely no identifying information, but they *usually* will refer to you using your birthname (Baby Girl/Boy_______) and they often identify the birthfather by name as well, although sometimes he will be referred to as John Doe.
Looking through the legal notices on microfilm can be an incredibly painful and time-consuming procedure. Knowing the time period when the legal notice was published is a must for TIPS to search. Usually the name of the attorney, or the attorney's firm is named at the top of the notice, which is how you can begin narrowing down the notices. We help you decide if this is an option in your case. Adoption Decree or Order of Adoption.
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| The Adoption Decree or Order of Adoption |
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Your adoption might have come with one or both of these documents, generally it would be the final order of adoption.
BEWARE - The Adoption Decree can contain some potentially upsetting and disturbing language for adoptees adopted several decades ago, or even more recently. Often, the decree announces that you, the adoptee, have been 'abandoned' or 'rejected' by your natural mother.
You, the adoptee, might be referred to as illegitimate. At the end of the document you are judged to have, by virtue of your adoption, obtained "all rights, privileges and immunities of children born in lawful wedlock.
Adoption Decrees usually include your birthname, your adoptive parents names, your adoptive name, and sometimes one or both of your birthparents names.
The best place to find the adoption decree is with your adoptive parents, with their important papers. TIPS can contact the attorney that handled the adoption, or his firm if he is no longer practicing or has passed on, and try to obtain a copy.
TIPS will help you locate the attorney of record through the non-identifying information request . If your adoptive parents are supportive of your search, TIPS will guide your adoptive parents on the procedure to obtain the Adoption Decree as well as all other documents related to your adoption. The attorney usually will not give the adoptee the Decree.
Don't be surprised if when we obtain a copy of your adoption decree or order of adoption through the court, agency, or the attorney, if the identifying names will be "whited' out or otherwise deleted.
However TIPS investigative skills can often still piece together a lot of good clues from these documents. When requesting the adoption decree, it can be useful to also attempt to obtain the consent to relinquish, termination order, or other consent that your birthparent(s) will have signed.
TIPS believes it never hurts to ask for the documents mentioned above. It might work and it may not be successful at all, but it's worth a try.
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