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Genealogy Guide: United States

History of U.S. Adoption Laws

Before World War II, almost half of all adoptions were handled privately, and,sometimes, there were few records involved. Adoption records in most states were open to the public or to “interested parties.” After World War II, many states began regulating adoption more strictly, offering greater privacy protection to birth parents and evaluating prospective adoptive homes more closely. In the last several decades, the adoptees rights movement has lobbied to open access to birth and adoption information to adoptees. The accessibility of information continues to vary from state to state. Click here for a basic overview of the types of information found in adoption records and the range of state policies concerning access to each type.

Locating Adoption Records

There are several records relevant to birth parent or adoptee searches: birth certificates in state or city repositories, case files of adoption agencies, and records of the courtsthat approved the adoptions. To find your state’s laws concerning access to adoption records, use the Child Welfare Information Gateway’s State Statute Search. To learn whether you can access case files or to request non-identifying information about birth parents, such as their national/ethnic heritage, religion, etc., contact the agency or lawyer that handled the adoption.

If you have identified your birth parents and would like to conduct genealogical research on their families, please see our fact sheet on “Starting Your Family History Research.”

Birth Certificates

When an adoption is finalized, a new birth certificate for the child is customarily issued to the adoptive parents. The original birth certificate is then sealed and kept confidential by the state registrar of vital records. While, in the past, most states required a court order for adoptees to gain access to their original birth certificates, currently about half allow easier access to these records. Starting in January 2020, New York State will permit adoptees who are over the age of eighteen, or their descendants if the adoptee is deceased, to request a copy of their original, unaltered, and unredacted birth certificate. For instructions on how to place these requests, visit the website of the New York Adoptee Rights Coalition. To find your state’s laws concerning access to original birth certificates, see the Adoptee Rights Law website.

If you are looking for a birth certificate issued prior to 1942 (when the Uniform Vital Statistics Act required adoptees’ original birth certificates to be sealed), you may order it by mail or online (for a fee) from the Vital Records Office of the state in which the individual was born. To find contact info for each state’s Vital Records Office, visit the Center for Disease Control's website. For links to online birth records (indexes, images, or both) by state, visit GermanRoots.com.*
*Some of these links will take you to Ancestry.com, which requires a fee to view records.

Further Reading

Askin, Jayne. Search: A Handbook for Adoptees and Birthparents. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1998. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please use http:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

Bernard, Jacqueline. The Children You Gave Us: A History of 150 Years of Service to Children. New York: Jewish Child Care Association of New York, 1973. American Jewish Historical Society HV 883 .N7 .B47

Bogen, Hyman. The Luckiest Orphans: A History of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992. American Jewish Historical Society HV 995 .N52 .H433 1992

Brown, T. A. Adoption Records Handbook: Birth Family Searches Made Easier with Self-Help Tips, Registries, Search Angels, Pro Se Legal Forms, Etc. Las Vegas: Crary Publ., 2008. Genealogy Institute HV 875.55 .B76 2008

Carangelo, Lori, and Americans for Open Records. The Ultimate Search Book: Worldwide Adoption, Genealogy, and Other Search Secrets. Rochester, Vt.: Schenkman Books, 2011. Genealogy Institute  HV875 .U38 2002

Friedman, Reena S. These Are Our Children: Jewish Orphanages in the United States, 1880-1925. Hanover, N.H: University Press of New England [for] Brandeis University Press, 1994. Genealogy Institute HV 983 .F75 1994

Hacsi, Timothy A. Second Home: Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please use http:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

Holt, Marilyn I. The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please use http:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

Johnson, Mary E. Waifs, Foundlings and Half-Orphans: Searching for America's Orphan Train Riders. Westminster, Md: Heritage Books, 2005. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please use http:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

O'Connor, Stephen. Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please usehttp:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

Tillman, Norma M. The Adoption Searcher's Handbook: A Guidebook for All Persons Involved in Adoption Searches. Nashville: Norma Tillman Enterprises, 2010. [not available at the Center for Jewish History – please use http:///www.worldcat.org to find the nearest locations for this book]

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