[jourth]

When someone is adopted can the adoptive parents change the birth certificate?? Like place of birth or even the birthdate. Please help. I am running out of hope on my search.

[DianeS]

It is indeed possible that the birth certificate you have does not list the same information that appeared on the original.

Some states did that more often than others, and certain time periods had more changes than other time periods, and some data was more likely to be changed than other data, but I don't know any of the details of how to "guess" if your information was changed or not.

And its probably important to note that it was not usually the adoptive parents who requested the changes. Usually, it was either agency policy to change information or it wasn't, and the changes were simply made that way, and the resultant birth certificate handed to the adoptive parents without mention of any changes.

[pfyrespyrit]

My ammended birth certificate has my adoptive parents' names as the only change, but I have heard of others with much more changed. You could try a couple of things. First, did your adoptive parents keeps financial records of your adoption? My dad kept all my records with the tax returns of that year because he claimed it all. I found my hospital bills with those that confirmed date and location.
If not you could try to contact medical records at the hospital listed. Don't tell them you are adopted though. They won't help you. Tell them you are trying to confirm your own records. Ask if they have a baby listed for the date and time of your birth. It helps if you know you birth mother's last name too. Be extra nice to whoever might help you because chances are your records are not computerized and someone will have to search personally. If the first person won't or can't help you, ask for their supervisor, and keep going up the chain of command.
If nothing comes of it, you can contact the state you were, or think you were born in and ask them to send you the forms to apply to open your files. Medical reasons work best, I think. Good luck.

[NYLM]

My birth certificate is scarcely bigger than a credit card. It simply states my name, DOB, POB, Gender and a registration #.


I've run into difficulties with having such a basic certificate. When I got married they wanted a notarized copy and were suggesting they couldn't issue a marriage license because there wasn't any parental info. It wasn't until I brought up the adoption portion that they made an exemption.

Anyone else encounter hardships?