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Adoption Issues/birth certificate.

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Expert: - 6/8/2011


Question
Hello,

I hope you can help me as I'm at the end of my rope and out of ideas.

Here is my situation. I was born in Buffalo, NY. My mother divorced, then remarried when I was 3 and I was adopted by my step father when I was 6 years old. I have tried AND PAID the office of Vital Statistics several times in NY and they always tell me they cannot find my records.

Then, I was told I would go to the state I was adopted in, which was Rhode Island. However, when I go to the web site in RI, it states that I go to the state of birth.

The adoption was not closed and I have all the necessary information but when I correspond or talk to anyone in NY I have gotten nothing back except the form letter saying no record can be found and to check my information.

I need a certified birth certificate and a passport and I need it in the next two to three weeks.

Can you help me?

Thanks for your time.

Answer
Do your parents have a copy of your birth records or medical records?  Do they have a photo copy of your birth certificate? Perhaps a baptismal certificate?  With these documents you can cross reference the actual information including city and state you were born in.  You needed to have a birth certificate to be enrolled in school so there is one floating out there.  I am confused as well as why you are unable to get a certified one.  You may need to track down the attorney who processed the step parent adoption if you are still dead ended.

I am sorry you are having a difficult time and hope that you are able to track this down.  In addition to attempting to identity a birth certificate in your step father's name, you may want to track down your original birth certificate if for some reason it was not sealed and a new one was not issued after the adoption.

Best wishes to you.

Michele

http://www.adoptionstar.com

Adoption Issues

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Adoption STAR

Expertise

Questions related to domestic and international adoption.

Experience

22 years in the adoption field. Michele Fried is the founder and chair of Adoption STAR. Her foremost responsibilities are the implementation of strategic plans and agency growth/expansion, financial management, board partnerships and supervision of the staff. Michele has her hands full with these responsibilities as well as initiating marketing and public relation campaigns and executing and implementing policies developed by the Board of Directors.

Organizations
CAFFA, JCICS, NACAC

Education/Credentials
Before starting Adoption STAR. Michele worked as an educator in Pennsylvania and then after she and her husband adopted their first child, she entered the field of adoption. In 1989 she founded an adoption agency licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Michele’s own family began to grow and they chose to return home to Western New York. Michele began working locally as an Inclusion Coordinator for individuals with developmental disabilities. As the years went by, Michele was inspired by the great need for a passionate, advocacy based, non-profit child-welfare agency in this area and so Adoption STAR was born in March of 2000! Michele is very proud of the work Adoption STAR has done and continues to do, and states she is touched by the incredible birth mothers that work with the agency.

Awards and Honors
The community-at-large has also noticed Michele and her agency. In 2003 Michele received a Business First 40 Under Forty Award and in 2004 WKBW-TV honored Michele by selecting her to be one of the community’s Everyday Heroes. The YWCA also honored Michele in 2005 by selecting her as one of twenty-six women making a difference in Western New York. In 2009 Michele was the recipient of a Business First Women of Influence Entrepreneur Award. On May 1, 2010 during the Dazzling Decade ~ A Night of Star’s 10th Birthday Gala, Michele’s own agency presented her with the First Michele Fried Founder’s Award. In the future, this award will be given annually to an individual whose contributions, expertise, and dedication to adoption mirror Michele’s.

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