If you are an adoptee and you’re interested in searching for your biological parents, you’ll want to cover all of your bases.
Here’s how.
If you know in which state you were born and adopted, you should start by contacting the state in regards to obtaining your original birth certificate. Every adoptee has an original birth certificate and an amended one. If the copy in your possession has your adoptive parents listed on it, that’s your amended birth certificate.
Some states will hand over your original birth certificate without much bother. Other states are a little more complicated and they might charge you a fee. Unfortunately, some states won’t give you your original birth certificate without a court order or they just flat out won’t release it at all.
But it’s definitely worth looking into, because your original birth certificate can be gold! It will list your birth mother’s name and sometimes, your birth father’s too. It’s also normally accompanied by your birth parent(s) ages, occupations at the time of your birth, address or city of residence at the time, etc.
Sometimes, although a state won’t release your original birth certificate to you, they might release other information, typically referred to as “non-identifying” information.
Non-identifying information can be all kinds of social, relational, health, and other information about your birth parents. It just won’t name them. So your birth mom’s name might not be released, but you could discover her age, what she was doing (work/school) at the time of your birth, her parents’ ages and occupations, a general region where she lived, whether or not she has siblings, her hobbies, a physical description, her plans for the future, and on and on it goes. This can be hugely helpful even though your birth parents haven’t actually been named yet.
Always check with the state for information, but also contact the adoption agency if you know one was involved. If not an adoption agency, perhaps you have the name of the attorney who facilitated your adoption.
Agencies and attorneys may or may not be willing to help. But many of them, especially agencies, will at least share some information with you. Gather everything you can. At the very least, ask if you can place a letter in your adoption file with them so they can pass it on to your birth mother or father if they ever decide to contact the agency, looking for you!
Some adoption agencies provide mutual consent registries that allow you to register your information with them, then match you to your birth parent if he or she also decides to register. You can find state registries online as well. The only international registry is called Soundex. It certainly doesn’t hurt to register with Soundex, any state registries in the state where you were adopted, and any that are provided by the agency where your adoption took place. Use them all!
It doesn’t work very often, but it’s worth contacting the hospital where you were born (if you have that information) and asking for your medical records. If you have the doctor’s name on any paperwork that delivered you, try contacting his or her office too, if they are still practicing.
A final option that is often the most valuable and profitable, especially for adoptees who have no information to use as a starting point, is to register your DNA with one or more of the DNA database providers such as Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, GEDMatch, etc.
DNA doesn’t lie. Your DNA profile will return matches on both your birth mother’s and your birth father’s sides of the family. If you don’t have any close DNA relatives or you don’t know how to proceed at this point, then contact someone who can help. New Hope Investigations provides this service. Other private investigators provide it. Genealogists do too.
You have several possible avenues to take to get the ball rolling. So get it rolling!