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I definitely agree that my adoption was not open in today's sense. However, it was open for both sets of parents, just not for me. I believe this is the basis for much of the anger I experienced when I found out that they had known all along. I don't think there was any ever plan to tell me which made me even more angry.
I do believe from the adoption paperwork I've seen from 1960's adoptions that adoptive parents often had the names of the mothers of their adopted children. My own sons's adoption papers - which he had never seen, of course - had my name there, not whited out. Another adoption paperwork also had the first mother's name clearly left in place, no attempt to hide it. This was from a Missouri Crittenton home which handled adoptions as well as serving as a maternity home and foster care agency.
I had never seen my own adoption papers until getting a copy some 40 years later. I'm guessing that mother's names were routinely left on adoption papers, all the talk about 'confidentiality' being a cover. It is not surprising that so few adopted children had ever seen their own paperwork.
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