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How would I go about determining if my child had been adopted, or stayed in Foster care until 18? My son was born in 1982, and absolution of parental rights were signed ca. 1984. I'm not sure which road to go down in my search.
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Try and order his birth certificate. If you can he stayed in foster care, if you can't he was adopted. The exception is a couple of states allow the first parent of an adopted child to order the original birth certificate - if you are in one of those states - I would assume the birth certificate you receive should have something indicating that it is not the legal birth certificate on file (my original birth certificate has a statement to that effect), or the process to order it should be different. Kind regards, Dickons
Well thanks guys, I will try that. Are the original BCs destroyed, or are they just locked away, I wonder. It just occurred to me that the BC that we had had his footprint on the back. I don't know if his mother still has that, but I was curious as to whether or not there's a duplicate of the original on file. Thanks for the replies, I will certainly look into getting his BC.
The birth certificate you have with a foot print is a hospital birth certificate. I'm talking about a birth certificate from the state. When an adoption takes place an amended birth certificate is created which lists the adoptive parents as the ones who brought the child into the world, and a new name replaces the child's original name(s). The original birth certificate is NOT destroyed, they aren't allowed to do that by law. It is sealed away from the public (everyone, including the person whose birth certificate it is) and can only be accessed by court order for good cause, or the laws have been reversed giving the adopted person the right to access it. Kind regards, Dickons
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