Vital Statistics Can Be Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy

I had stated in my earlier posts that the birth certificate is the most vital piece of evidence that you’ll need to be able to effectively search for your biological parents. Your amended certificate as I said has tons of little clues as to your identity but you really have to dig to find the significance of those clues. I said in another post that you have to find out the state where your adoption occurred. For example, if you were born in the state of Ohio, but your adoption took place in Pennsylvania, you would have to search in Pennsylvania. On the converse, if you were born in Ohio, and the amended certificate is from Ohio, you can be relatively certain you were adopted in Ohio. The bureau of vital statistics can be your best friend or worst enemy in helping you complete your search. Vital statistics keeps records of all births, deaths, divorces, etc.. Once you’re at the point of contacting vital statistics, you need to know in advance whether or not it is an open adoption state or a closed adoption state. In an open adoption state, the bureau of vital statistics will allow you, assuming you’re over the age of 18 or 21 depending on the state, to view your sealed file. All adoption files are sealed no matter what state you were adopted in. If you live in an open adoption state, you have a much better chance of finding your birth parents. In a closed adoption state, it’s much more difficult to get the original birth certificate. In a closed adoption state, when you’re actually adopted, the judge will order your file sealed. In order to open your file, you’ll have to petition the family court to have a court order issued to open the file. That’s why I said if you live in an open state it makes your job a whole lot easier. When I went to search for my biological parents, I ran into this problem. At the time, Ohio was a closed state. I knew this but I did not go to a judge to get a court order. Instead, I called the bureau of vital statistics and asked them all kinds of questions or several phone calls. This process serves a number of purposes. The first thing I did was ask the clerks name that I was speaking to. During the various phone calls I made, I sort of made a friend out of her. I would occasionly talk with her about off topic things such as things going on in Ohio or in the news in general. Of course I eventually would ask the crucial question about my file. I asked her things like, “are you certain my file is there since it has been many years since the adoption occurred?” This would require her to get up and go look for my file. She would come back and tell me there was a file there. Then I would ask her if there was any info she could give me that would help me find my biological mother. In some cases she would throw me a bone and there would be something I could rely on to be correct. She would say something like, “I can tell you this, she lived on the west side of your city.” That was a big help because that just eliminated three quarters of a million people. After several calls over time, we were on a first name basis. Finally I told her I need to know this because there may be a serious medical issue. Is there any way I could just look at the file? Let’s take a step back here for a moment, like I said earlier, in a closed state you need a court order to open those files. Judges are human and not robots. A lot of times they will take their own beliefs and apply them to the law. For example, if the judge is conservative, and he himself has adopted a child, he will have his own opinions about opening a closed file. This makes this a very difficult case. I have also heard of judges allowing the file to be opened but all identifying information has been redacted. That does you no good whatsoever. Getting court orders to open an adoption file is a dicey operation. You might get lucky or you may be unlucky and get a hard nosed conservative judge. That is the precise reason I avoided the courts. Going through that nonsense to get a redacted statement is useless. Once I asked that girl at vital statistics, she hesitated and I said ‘come on I need the information” I could have married my sister, who would know. She said ok. She told me to get there Monday at 9:00am. I had to travel about 500 miles to get there since I was living outside Philadelphia , a long way from Columbus. I told her that I wanted to verify that she would be there. She gave me her home phone number. I was in like gold. Joseph M. Sabol is a world class videographer and the author of the book "Adoptee - A Childhood of Torment." For further information go to http:// www.adopteeadoptee.com