Obtaining Birth and Adoption Records

If you are trying to access birth or adoption records the information below may be of help to you.

You are advised to get your adopted child's original birth records and/or the birth records that have been amended after the child adoption has been finalized.  In many states obtaining adoption birth records may be a problem since child adoption records are sealed after the child adoption is finalized. Many states, therefore, have strict procedures by which parties to a child adoption may obtain non-identifying as well as some identifying information about an adopted person and the birth relatives. You may want to check the laws of the state in which the birth father and birth mother reside and the state in which the child adoption was, or will be, finalized.

Since the access to records is limited and many birth mothers, birth fathers, and adopted children search for each other, two issues related to records are search and reunion and the establishment of child adoption registries.

The site of the National Center for Health Statistics may help you to get information on birth records.

If you have adopted a child internationally, you should make sure to get records from the agency you worked with.  If they are not able to provide needed items, the vital records office in the foreign country may be able to help.  Mailing addresses of offices of vital records in foreign countries can be found on this U.S. state Department website.

Good information on this topic is also available from the Child Welfare Information Gateway articles Access to Family Information by Adopted Persons and Obtaining Birth and/or Adoption Records.

To see how your state law addresses adoption and birth records, please visit ChildAdoptionLaws.com.