birth certificate for an adopted person

[selliot]

Hi everyone,
I really hope you don't mind me posting here, but there's so much expertise here, and I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I'm not actually researching my family history (yet!) but am here because I'm researching a novel.

My character is adopted in 1963, and only discovers this in his 40s - he's used his short birth certificate up until now (I understand this wouldn.t refer to his adoption.) My question is: is it possible that his adoptive mum might have a copy of his original birth cert, or would the adoption agency always keep that? Failing that, is it feasible that she'd know his birth mother's name? For the purposes of my plot, I don't want him to have to wait for social services to get his file, counsel him, etc. I'd like him to have his original birth cert (or birth mum's name) asap so that he can start his own search immediately. At the moment, I've got his mum giving him an envelope containing all the adoption paperwork (court documents etc), plus his birth cert. Would that be possible, do you think?

I realise I'm being rather cheeky posting here, but I hope you don't mind. If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks for taking time to read this, and good luck to you all with your searches.

[dawn/karen]

ok going from my experiences as im adopted to, my adoptive parents always had access to my birth name and this was on a certificate that my parents already had, well hidden from prying small eyes tho!!! so my guess is that this persons mum will have them asim around the same age as who you are acting for

[selliot]

ok going from my experiences as im adopted to, my adoptive parents always had access to my birth name and this was on a certificate that my parents already had, well hidden from prying small eyes tho!!! so my guess is that this persons mum will have them asim around the same age as who you are acting for

Thank you so much for this response! Can I ask you onemore question? Do you know if this was actually your birth certificate? i.e. did it state your birth mother's name? If not, would he be able to go to the records office and look up births on that date and find out his mother's name that way?

Thanks again for replying - I really appreciate your help!

[dawn/karen]

well i cant say for certain but i have memories from a long time back of knowing my birth parent name, i would guess i only gott that from finding the certificate and reading it as there was no way my adoptive parents would have told me the name. sorry i cant really be more helpful about it as i dont have that, my adoptive parents have never given me it but i know its exists

[selliot]

well i cant say for certain but i have memories from a long time back of knowing my birth parent name, i would guess i only gott that from finding the certificate and reading it as there was no way my adoptive parents would have told me the name. sorry i cant really be more helpful about it as i dont have that, my adoptive parents have never given me it but i know its exists

This is actually very helpful, and I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. Thanks again!

[looking4clues]

Hi everyone,
I really hope you don't mind me posting here, but there's so much expertise here, and I'm hoping someone might be able to help. I'm not actually researching my family history (yet!) but am here because I'm researching a novel.

My character is adopted in 1963, and only discovers this in his 40s - he's used his short birth certificate up until now (I understand this wouldn.t refer to his adoption.) My question is: is it possible that his adoptive mum might have a copy of his original birth cert, or would the adoption agency always keep that? Failing that, is it feasible that she'd know his birth mother's name? For the purposes of my plot, I don't want him to have to wait for social services to get his file, counsel him, etc. I'd like him to have his original birth cert (or birth mum's name) asap so that he can start his own search immediately. At the moment, I've got his mum giving him an envelope containing all the adoption paperwork (court documents etc), plus his birth cert. Would that be possible, do you think?

I realise I'm being rather cheeky posting here, but I hope you don't mind. If anyone can help, I'd be most grateful.

Thanks for taking time to read this, and good luck to you all with your searches.

Hello

Hope this info may help.

From my family research which includes an adoption in the 1930s the adoptive parents had a copy of the original birth certificate showing Birth Mothers details together with a FULL and SHORT copy of the adoption cetificate (the latter was used when school started as it does not contain any information regarding adoption). In our case the birth Mothers details were always known and in fact they corresponded for a few years. I do not not this if this was the standard case however and suggest you contact the GRO adoption section to clarify details

Best wishes

[selliot]

Thank you, this is really helpful! It's becoming clear that is was not that uncommon for the adoptive parents to have the original birth certificate. Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

[Astoria]

My hubbie was adopted in 1965, he did not have a short birth certificate, he had an adoption certificate - they look the same, in place of birth, it says adoption. This stated his adoptive parents names, and the usual birthplace, date of birth etc. ( no mention of birth mum)
When we married we used this certificate and it was fine, works just like a birth certificate.

Hubbie was very happy with his adoptive family and had no wish to know of his birth parents,

Then years later our daughter, aged 10 days was ill, very ill, and genetic questions were asked.

Hubbie telephoned his father and asked the big question, who were my parents?

They did have his original birth certificate, with his natural mother's name etc.
and a heap of other stuff, letters exchanged prior to adoption and so on.

Adoption in the sixties was very different to now, often it was organised through churches, I don't think my in-laws ever met a social worker.

If this is of any help to you at all, I would be happy to share more detail via PM.

[selliot]

Thanks Astoria, this is really helpful - especially the fact that your hubbie was adopted in 1965. This makes my plot seem quite feasible and I feel much happier about it now. However, I'm very sorry to hear that the reason you had to look into all this was your daughter's illness. I do hope all is well now.
Thanks again for replying, and very best wishes.

[selliot]

My thanks to everyone who has replied - the information you've given me has been really useful and I'm much happier with my plot now. When (if!) the book is published, I'll acknowledge all these kind replies, and will let you all know the publictaion date.

Thanks again,

Susan