Illegally adopted in 1959-- where do I start?

Pam, you have just found out the hard way what most adoptees our age already know (if you are indeed adopted!). That is that upon finalization of adoption an "amended" birth certificate is issued. It looks just like the "real" thing and it lists your ADOPTIVE parents as the parents who gave birth to you. Nowhere does it indicate on the birth certificate that it is amended or give any mention of the birth parents. This was/is the common procedure in adoption. It doesn't necessarily mean that the adoption was illegal or involved an illegal immigrant. Of course if you know for sure where you were born you could request your birth records. "If" you are adopted, they probably won't be "found". Your hospital records would be in your birthmother's name which you wouldn't know. Now that I think about it, except for circumstantial evidence (like you have) none of us would have any way of knowing we are adopted unless our parents told us. The birth certificate wouldn't give it away. Theoretically a person could go through their whole life and never know! But since you are looking for the answer I hope you find out. Good luck and let us know how it goes. Sonata

I think Sonata's suggestion to request your birth records is an excellent way to start. It is true that the birth certificates were/are amended - mine certainly was. But it should list the doctor that delivered you and that may be another way to request information. Also, if you know who the first pediatrician was that your parents took you to, you could request your records and see at what age the doctor started treating you. Sonata, very interesting thought - "none of us would have any way of knowing we are adopted unless our parents told us." Never thought about that but it is so very true. I would imagine that there are many who do not know.

Reading dlouis's post made me go and fish my birth certificate out of the fire safe to take a look.....my birth certificate doesn't even say WHO delivered me......there isn't even a place on there for it. NOR does it say anything about the time of day or any of that. It's just this little green rectangle with my name, my birthday, my adoptive parent's names, my city of birth, and their state of birth. In the line where it says "Record Filed" it says "October 1964", but no date....and then it says "Issued "December 10, 1965"......so would that have been when it was finalized ya think? I think it's kinda creepy, actually. It feels like a "falsified" record or something.....like being in the witness protection program or something. YUCK! Sonata, you made a great point! HUgs, Sally

That's very weird. Does it say "Certified copy of a Birth Record" and have the state seal pressed on it? I was born in Illinois and that is what mine is like. Mine has been changed to list my aparents names and my aname, but it does list the M.D. under "I certify that I attended at the birth of this child" and the date & time I was born. I was born on 8/8/50 and the M.D. certified 8/10/50. I was adopted in 1952 and it was finalized in 1953 and on the bottom of my birth certificate it states this birth cerificate was certified by Director of Public Health on 2/11/53. Perhaps you should request your birth certificate from the state you were born in and you will receive something more like mine. You will still have amended information but perhaps more than you have now. Good Luck!

My husband adopted my 3 older kids. It was done as adult adoptions because they were each over 18. They were given the option of getting an amended birth certificate, and they got it. It states, for the world to see, that my husband was their father at birth! I just think it's crazy!! Love, Debi The funniest part is that my husband was only 16 when my eldest was born! I know it can be done but, yikes!

Thank you all for your posts, this is a nice place to come at the start of what I think may be a long and difficult process. Following your advice I found the name of the attending physician on the birth certificate, and entered it in a few search engines along with the name of the hospital and state, but found nothing. In any event, if he were old enough to be an attending M.D. in a delivery ward in 1959 I suspect he is no longer living now. I don't know this forum well enough to know how much information is useful or appropriate to share about my situation, but I do have a follow-up question about another question that you guys have probably dealt with 1,000 times from new folks like me... I just found a company called GeneTree that offers a home DNA kit-test to exclude paternity or maternity within 99%. Is this a scam? Is it even legal to test someone's DNA for these purposes without their knowledge or consent? If I went into my parent's home and got samples of their hair with follicles, or saliva from toothbrushes, or whatever, and sent it in to this company, would the results be reliable? I don't care if they're legally defensible results, this has absolutely nothing to do with inheritance, or legality in any way. These dear people are absolutely my Mother and Father, and I would never think otherwise even if I found other relatives to whom I was related genetically. I'm willing to obtain biosamples without their knowledge if it could help me investigate my own biological identity without hurting them emotionally. But I'm not willing to be bilked by charlatans who want to offer bogus information to desperate people that is not even sound enough to hold up in a court of law. Does anyone have advice about this or any other company who offers DNA testing for maternity/paternity? I know that one or possibly both of my parents (and they are my parents) are not my biological relatives. Knowing that neither of them are related to me would be an advantage, because that would mean I could potentially search for a situation in which they adopted me outright. If it's just an issue of paternity, I would probably drop the search since this would be simply a matter of a situation in my Mother's past which she has worked hard to keep private. I'd like to know which is true, if I can. Advice? thanks again, Pam

I don't know anything about the DNA kit you mentioned but it may be worth a try. What I do want to give input on is that even though the M.D. on your birthcertificate may not be alive or practicing, his records need to have gone somewhere. Try to find out, either through the state, medical boards or current practicing physicians where medical records are stored. Another physician may have bought his practice and they should have knowledge of where his records are stored. Although many things are now on computer archives, microfish etc. the requirements are that records be preserved. I was born in 1950 and the agency that handled my adoption not only found my original file in their archives, but the file of a half sibling that I had no knowledge about that was born in May of 1949. My message is, Make them look and dig!!!

Hi again, Pam. I used a DNA test to establish paternity with my birthfather a few months ago. It might be the only way you can find out for sure. The test I did involved taking cheek samples. My b-father and I live 900 miles apart and they arranged for the samples to be taken from each of us and sent to the lab. Then the results were mailed to me. I don't know about "surreptitioius" sampling, though! I know they were very careful about identifying the samples they took so there would be no doubt of the results. I think their name was DNA Diagnostics and they have a very good reputation. I can get my paperwork and give you the exact info if you want. I was satisfied with their services. It cost about $500. Sonata