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I am writing on behalf of my wife. I'll briefly describe her situation.... Her birth father had been gone since she was two years old. She was legally adopted when she was 18 years old by her step-father. She knew she was of indian heritage most of her life, and it wasn't until we got together that she got serious about finding her birth father because she wanted to learn more about her indian heritage from his side of the family due to health reasons. We tried off and on to find her birth father, but were unsuccessful. Several years went by and out of the blue, her birth father found HER! Long story short - she has been in contact with him for the past year. She now knows that she is 1/4 Choctaw Indian, which makes her eligible for a Choctaw Roll # (Indian Card). The problem now is that she was legally adopted when she was 18 years old and she doesn't have access to her original birth certificate with her birth fathers name on there. Without this, she cannot get her indian registration that we know of.
Her birth mother and step-father who adopted her are not willing to offer ANY help because they do not want her to be affiliated in any way with her birth father. My wife is now 31 years old and feels that she has the right to have her indian roll card.
I have read on here that she would need to petition the court that the adoption took place to unlock her adpotion records so she could obtain her original birth certificate. Is this something that we would need to hire an attorney to do, or is it something we could do ourselves? She really doesn't care about any of the information in there other than obtaining that birth certificate. Any help or direction you could give would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
tex_toby
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Thanks for the lightening-quick reply! If we were to petition the court to open the file, would it be possible to get a CERTIFIED copy of the original? I just don't think a NON-Certified copy will allow her to gain her indian roll #, which is the reason we are wanting to do this in the first place. That said, it's worth a try!
If not, is there ANY way to obtain a CERTIFIED copy?
No - the only "Certified" copy she has access to is the one that is now her legal birth certificate - which is the Amended one.Her biologocal father can adopt her back...amending her certificate again to have his name...but Texas is 'iffy' from county to county on allowing that. The OBC should work with the Tribe - they are generally pretty decent about working with adopted adults...although I would assume most of them are adopted as children, rather than adults, like your wife. I just don't know...Sorry...
Your wife can easily obtain a copy of her original birth certificate from the Central Adoption Registry of the Texas Dep't of State Health Services. All she needs to do is make the request and provide the names of her biological mother and father. There's no need for a petition to unseal the records in this case.