[Dickons]

Questions for all adoptees whether you feel the need to search or not.

1. Do you want your Original Birth Certificate or would you apply for it if your state allowed access?

2. Have you personally or have friends of yours had issues with DMV or the Passport office without an OBC?

3. Have you requested your info from either the agency your parents used or through the lawyer or state?

Kind regards,
Dickons

[hpfreak080]

I'm pretty sure you may be able to guess my answers (lol) but I will contribute anyway =)

1. At this time, I'm not interested in getting my OBC unless I need it for something. HOWEVER, I do think records should be opened for all of those that currently want their OBC and for me, in case I decide I want it in the future.

2. I don't know of too many adoptees around me so all I can say is that I've heard of people (from the internet...) having difficulties getting licenses, passports, etc. Personally, getting my driver's license was no big deal. They accepted my ABC with no problems. Keep in mind that I'm only 19, so I don't know if it's the fact that newer ABCs look more like originals than much older ABCs...

3. I think you know my answer to this one (lol) but if I do decide to search in the future, I know the first person I can talk to (besides my parents LOL)...the lawyer (on my aparents side) is a good family friend of ours and would definitely have the information (or know how to get it).

[St3v3n]

Well, I'm searching right now, through my birth state's CI program (actually waiting for my bmom to decide whether she wants contact -- the CI found her with no trouble). If I am able to reunite with her and/or my bdad, I don't think the OBC really matters that much to me. I may change my mind in the future, but that's how I feel at the moment.

I have never had any trouble using my ABC for driver's license, passport, etc.

[epenn922]

1. Do you want your Original Birth Certificate or would you apply for it if your state allowed access?

2. Have you personally or have friends of yours had issues with DMV or the Passport office without an OBC?

3. Have you requested your info from either the agency your parents used or through the lawyer or state?

1. YES -- I'd go in person and stand in line to get it.

2. YES -- I had difficulty renewing my driver's license. I was told to go and get my 'real birth certificate'. This was after I was already refused once, had to go home and get a utility bill with my name (not my husband's) on and current address. So when I was told to come back with my 'real birth certificate', I unloaded on the guy. I'm not prone to make public scenes, but I did that day. The guy didn't even see it coming. He got it double barreled from me about how adoptees aren't allowed a real birth certificate. Every time I have to give my license for anything and I see my face, I can see the anguish I went thru that day.

3. YES -- paid to get my non-identifying info from Catholic Charities. Bmom flipped, threatened to sue and set up a website condemning me, my birthfather and the fact that I was allowed to get this information.

Sigh....

[snuffie]

Yes, I definitely wanted (and have) my original birth certificate. It somehow validated my existence for me.

I didn't have a problem. Legally my adoptive name is who I am and should count for obtaining licenses etc.

State adoption record search agency helped me.

[loveajax]

Dickons, sorry to answer for my hubby, but he did get nonID info from Catholic Charities and was able (thru some super sleuthing) to locate his birth mom. He did however go the day they opened up OBCs here in MA to get it....he really wanted it. He has never had a problem getting a license or his passport (and he got his passport after 9/11). I wonder if it's a regional thing....

[epenn922]

Today I just mailed request to get long-form of my birth certificate so that i can apply for a passport -- this will be the first time in my life that i get the long-form... all i had b4 was a half-sheet of paper with 4 lines on it... should be interesting what i get back -- it's 5 months before we probably go on vacation, so hopefully that's long enough!

[SoniaRose]

1. If my OBC were available from my state, I would have requested it long ago. Now that I know who my bparents were (both deceased), I would still request it just because I would love to see it.

2. I hit a snag obtaining a passport about 25 years ago. My amom looked in her files and said that she didn't have a certified copy of my BC, so I called the county to get a new copy. I was then told that because I was adopted, my records had to come from the state capital, not from the county in which I was born. I was told it could take weeks, but I said I needed my passport before then! Well, after some phone calls and a special request, I was able to get my certified BC in time from the capital, but I was really upset that I might miss the chance to go to Europe.

The kicker for me now is that I was recently looking through some files with my aparents, and there was my certified BC. They had it the whole time!!!

3. Yes, I requested my non-id a little over a year ago, several months after I was "found" by some bcousins. I was not previously aware such a document was available, or I would have sent away for it years ago. I had concluded that my bmom must be dead because she wasn't looking for me (an earlier document said that she wanted to keep me very badly), so I wasn't actively searching.

Even though I have been told a lot of facts about my bparents, the non-id was useful because it's the story from my bmom's point of view. It's what she told the social worker, and I'm assured that she loved me and desperately want to raise me.

[BethVA62]

#1. YES, I feel I am entitled to a true record of my birth, like everyone else.

#2. YES, it took months to get my passport, my kids and husbands took a few weeks. No one was sure why of course, only said that they had discrepencies with some of my records, but confirmed things themselves, no further explanation given. Don't panic yet Elaine, I got it a week before our trip

#3. YES, each time I requested non-ID info over the 20 years I was searching - I got more info each time, from the same dang file they had from the beginning.

[BethVA62]

Love,
what does his OBC look like? Is it different looking than his amended one? Does it have somethign written on it showing it's been changed?

dying to see what mine might look like one day LOL

[shadow riderer]

1. Yes. In my state, you can get your OBC if you have the name of your bio mother. Don't really know how to explain the feeling when I received it...sort of like finding the missing piece of a puzzle...affermation that I was truly born and didn't just appear one day out of the blue. Probably sounds silly, but holding it was very freeing somehow.

2. Nope never had any problems. Have a passport etc. Amended BC was enough.

3.. Yes. What can I say. I was curious about my biology.

Most, but not all, of the adoptees I know, would most definitely want their OBC and non ID info . They just don't want to go to all the trouble it takes to get it. If it were handed to them, they would jump at the chance to see that info.

Note: I said they wanted to see the info. I did not say they wanted to reunite.

[loveajax]

Beth, I can't remember!! But I know the birth father information was blank except it listed his father's race as "white" (like that was the most important piece? !)and it said "Baby Boy." The weird thing is that in the non-ID information, it says that he was given the name "B" (why not on OBC then?).

I don't know about his amended BC, but my DD's amended BC does not say "amended" on it. I have not tried to get her a passport (yet) and if I have a problem, I'll make a stink. I don't have her OBC (MA only opened records for adoptons pre 1974).

I think my hubby was "proud" that it "confirmed" the result of his sleuthing. But he said that when he went that day to pick up his OBC, there were a few adoptees waiting in line and that they all got emotional when they got their OBCs.

I guess the thing that makes me sad is that there is a certain "quest' that seems unnecessarily inherent in trying to reunite. Like it was really hard. And so I think my hubby's birth mom's response to him (or lack thereof) was even more difficult...does that make sense? And of course, I wonder if maybe he had access to it earlier things may have been different (better?).

[BethVA62]

If I am ever able to go and get mine, we will need a word stronger than emotional to describe my behavior in line LOL the whole state will know I am there and why.

I got thrown in jail when I was 18 when they laughed in my face and said, silly girl you can't have you're OBC, what are you thinking!!!
OK, so I didn't handle it so well... didn't take long to figure out I didn't think it was so **** funny as I cleaned off the ladies desk for her, I'm sure reaching for her throat didn't help a bit. Felt good, still feels really good, but didn't do much good except get me a free lunch and dinner.

Maybe when I go to pick mine up soon they will give me some sort of different prize this time

I agree, for me it was the 20 years of searching after that incident that did the most damage to me and my children. And having to wait that long for a response, good or bad, wasn't helpful to anyone at all.

[healingfeeling]

Originally Posted by loveajax

Dickons, sorry to answer for my hubby, but he did get nonID info from Catholic Charities and was able (thru some super sleuthing) to locate his birth mom. He did however go the day they opened up OBCs here in MA to get it....he really wanted it. He has never had a problem getting a license or his passport (and he got his passport after 9/11). I wonder if it's a regional thing....

loveajax,

when did they open up OBC's in MA? i'm from MA and couldn't get mine even when i contacted the Leuitenant Governer, he was only able to give me an adoption decree, which i needed to get married in the Caribbean (we didn't end up getting married there because of the hassle that i would have had to go through being adopted.) anyway, sorry to stray off topic, but i'm no longer living in MA and am unfamiliar with any changes they've made. thanks!!!

[loveajax]

Healing, here's the coverage I found on it....

Anyway, I believe my DH got his OBC at the Bureau of Vital Stats in Boston. What year were you born?

Mass. Set To Open Adoption Records - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston