[daborahKY1964]

Hi, I am looking at a birth cert of my mom. She was adopted and no one in the family would tell me names or any information.
My question...Why does it show that the birth mother of my mother is Robin Price, when she is my adoptive grandmother and I was told she was not her biological mother? And the date of the orginal that I have was signed 2 years after my mother was born?
I don't understand! Anything would be aprreciated.

Katie

[lucyjoy]

When kids are adopted, they are given an amended birth certificate listing the adoptive parents instead of the birth parents. This is because birth certificates are needed for ID for lots of things throughout their lives. The issue date would be the date the new birth certificate was issued.

[daborahKY1964]

Thanks, that makes sense but if a birth certificate was issued under the adoptive parents would that mean that the orginal was withdrawn? She wasnt adopted at birth so their has to be something with my mom's real parents name right?

[DianeS]

Right. The original birth certificate would have been withdrawn, sealed, destroyed, something like that. It is considered "invalid" now.

But yes, since it looks like your mom wasn't adopted until she was close to two years old, there probably was an original printed and out there somewhere. Her biological parents may have had a copy, her adoptive parents may have been given a copy (stranger things have happened), a church may have a copy if she was baptized there, and so on. It never hurts to look.

Good luck!

[FamilyDigger89]

I have a similar problem as you. I have seen my great aunt's amended birth record, but what was funny in our case is that the biological mother's name was actually listed in an index and was never whited out. I don't know what state you are in, but in the state of IN if the birth took place before 1941 the adoption is a matter of open record and the documents can be obtained from the court house in the county the birth took place. You might try to see if your state has a similar law or birth index that you might try looking in to see if you can find a birth that matches your mother's name or date of birth.

Good Luck

[Dickons]

Hi Katie,

Welcome to the forum and the world of sealed records where adoptees regardless if they are 20 or 70 cannot access their own personal information.

You are looking at the amended birth certificate. Birth certificates have to be changed to show the adoptive parents as the parents of the child and is not done until the adoption has been finalized by the courts. The original birth certificate is most likely sealed by the courts (a few states never sealed records) and will not be available to you without a court order.

You or your mom can file with the county that she was adopted in to receive the non-id info, although it probably will not provide her birth name (unless some kind soul 'forgets' to black out the name).

What you can do is: search adoption registries for her date of birth/place/race etc. If someone is searching you should find a match. Always keep in mind that depending on the era they sometimes changed other areas of the birth certificate including date, place of birth etc so broaden your search by not using the day and be open to small differences, you can always do a dna test to verify.

Kind regards,
Dickons

[RavenSong]

Some states that seal original birth certificates (OBCs) DO still include them in their state birth indexes. I know this to be true in the state of California. My son's OBC was sealed in Sacramento as soon as his amended birth certificate was issued. He still shows up in the California Birth Index, however. He has three listings: one under my last name, one under his birth father's last name, and one under his adoptive parents' last name.