If you are adopted, you may have a desire to locate your biological parents. Although some adoptees seek contact for purposes such as determining their own medical history, most do so for emotional reasons. Consider the possible consequences of such a quest, however, including your own emotional reaction if you discover that your biological parents are dead or unwilling to talk to you. If you are determined, you may have a good chance of at least contacting them through a confidential intermediary to seek their consent to a reunion.
Step 1
Collect information from your adoptive parents such as the name and former address of your biological parents, the name of the hospital you were born in, and the name of the adoption agency that handled your adoption. Although they may not have all of this information, they will likely have some of it.
Step 2
Obtain a copy of your birth birth certificate. Although it will probably have been amended to remove the names of your biological parents, according to the Adoptees Birthrights Committee, it may include the name of the hospital you were born in.
Step 3
Contact the hospital you were born in and the adoption agency that handled your case, and ask for copies of their records pertaining to you. Bear in mind that state law may prevent them from releasing any portion of your records that identifies your biological parents.
Step 4
Join online adoption registration databases such as GenealogyBank.com. Many state governments also have established adoption registries, according to the Administration for Children and Families. This approach will be effective only if your biological parents also have joined the database.
Step 5
Hire a private detective to perform a skip trace on one or both of your biological parents, if you have the name and former address of at least one of them.
Step 6
Petition a state court with jurisdiction over your adoption agency or the state of your birth, seeking complete copies of your adoption records, your medical records from the hospital you were born in, and your original birth certificate. Some states allow you to obtain identifying information about your biological parents only under limited circumstances. The Missouri Judicial Courts, for example, will grant your petition only if your biological parents are dead, or if they consent to release identifying information about themselves. If you file a petition and they are still alive, a confidential intermediary will contact them to seek permission for release of this information.
Tips and Warnings
- If your adoption was handled privately, ask your adoptive parents for the name of the lawyer who handled your case. The lawyer, or the lawyer's firm if she is deceased, may have identifying information in archived records, and may be able to contact your biological parents to seek consent to its release.
