About Abi Expertise I can answer questions on the emotional side of being an adoptee and on searching for adopted persons & birth parents.
Experience I was adopted from birth myself, and have found my own birth parents (both in UK and Spain) having had very little information to go on. I have also had a lot of experience researching information for others.
Expert: Abi Date: 3/18/2004 Subject: Finding birth parents
Question Abi,
I am working with my fiance to try to get infomration about her birth father. I discovered that Kansas (where she was adopted) is an "open" state and as such we recently got hold of her adoption papers. Those papers included her birth name and her birth parents first and last names but no middle initial/name and no health history. She was born in Denver and because CO is a "sealed" state we have been unable to get her original birth certificate which would have her birth parents names, etc... Any other ideas we might try to get her birth parents full names and any other misc information short of hiring a Private Investigator? I have one who has agreed to locate her birth father and provide, name, current address and phone number for $95. Renee isn't sure if she wants to actually make contact at this point so the registries don't really appeal to her and we suspect that her parents aren't registered based on the circumstances of the adoption (She was made a ward of the state of KS when it was deemed her father was not providing proper care.. she was subsequently adopted). Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide.
Harrison
Answer Hi,
living in the UK I am not sure of the system in the USA. However didn't you mention that the adoption papers have her parents full names on them?
I find it hard to believe that a person hasn't got automatic access to their own birth certificate aswell - there must be some procedure that allows this to happen in CO?
95$ seems quite a low price - does her father have an unusual name? In which case you could do a telephone directory search for him.
Re the contact issue - I would strongly recommend that if and when Renee wants to make make contact, she does so through a third party - eg a professional social worker. This keeps the confidentiality of the situation (just in case her parents have their own families and say haven't told anyone about Renee), slows down the pace of communications (this is good to keep any thoughts/emotions under control), and also gives Renee an easier method of backing away should she want to.
thanks,
Abi
