Finding Birth Family: Adoption Research with Records and DNA

How adoptees and their descendants can search for birth family using original birth certificates, court records, registries and, most powerfully, DNA.

4 min read

For generations, adoption records were sealed, and adoptees had few ways to learn about their birth families. That has changed dramatically. Many states have opened original birth certificates to adult adoptees, and DNA testing now identifies birth parents in a large share of cases. Whether you're an adoptee, or researching an adopted parent or grandparent, here's how to search.

Start with what you have

• Your amended birth certificate, which shows your adoptive parents, plus the county and date of your birth.
• Adoption papers your adoptive parents may have kept, including the court and agency names.
• Family knowledge: what your adoptive family was told, even details that seem small, like the birth mother's age or where she was from.

Non-identifying information

Even where records are sealed, adoptees can usually request non-identifying information from the agency or state. It may include the birth parents' ages, physical descriptions, education, occupations, religion, health history and the circumstances of the adoption, without names. These details can be very helpful when you start working with DNA matches later.

Original birth certificates

When an adoption was finalized, the state usually issued an amended birth certificate and sealed the original, which names the birth mother and sometimes the father. Access to that original birth certificate depends on the state where you were born:

• Some states allow adult adoptees to request it with few or no restrictions.
• Some allow access with conditions, such as a birth parent's option to file a contact preference or have their name redacted.
• Some still require a court order.

These laws have changed often in recent years, generally toward more access. Check your birth state's current law with its vital records office or adoptee advocacy organizations before you start.

Court and agency records

The adoption court file, held by the court that finalized the adoption, usually remains sealed. Adoptees can petition the court to open it, typically by showing good cause, such as a medical need. Agencies that handled adoptions may also share information or act as intermediaries. Some states run confidential intermediary programs that will locate and contact birth parents on your behalf.

Registries

Many states run mutual consent registries: if both the adoptee and a birth parent register, the state puts them in touch. There are also free national registries. A match requires both sides to register, so success depends on the birth family having done so, but registering costs little and may connect you.

DNA: the game changer

DNA testing has transformed adoption searches. Even without a single record, close DNA matches can lead to birth parents.

1. Test with the largest database first, usually AncestryDNA, and consider testing at other companies too, since your birth relatives may have tested anywhere. See Which DNA Test Should You Take?
2. Upload your raw data to GEDmatch to reach people who tested elsewhere.
3. Start with your closest matches. A parent, half sibling, aunt, uncle or first cousin makes the search much faster. See Shared cM Explained.
4. Sort matches into maternal and paternal groups using shared matches. See Sorting Your DNA Matches.
5. Build your matches' trees back to their grandparents using records, and look for the couple whose descendants include several of your matches.
6. Work forward from that couple through their children and grandchildren to find the people of the right age, in the right place at the right time, who fit your non-identifying information.

Volunteer search angels, experienced genetic genealogists who help adoptees for free, are active in many online DNA communities and can be invaluable.

Researching an adopted ancestor

If the adoptee was a parent, grandparent or earlier ancestor, many of the same steps apply. Older adoptions were often informal, with a child simply raised by relatives or neighbors, and may appear only as a "grandson" or "boarder" in a census. Court records, orphanage and children's home records, and orphan train records may help. See Orphans, Guardianships and the Orphan Trains. DNA testing of the adoptee's descendants can still identify the biological family.

Making contact

Finding a name is not the end of the search; it's the beginning of a relationship that may or may not be welcome. Before reaching out:

• Confirm the identification carefully with DNA and records.
• Consider an intermediary, such as an agency, a search angel or a trusted relative, to make first contact.
• Write a gentle letter that gives the other person time and privacy to respond. Many birth mothers kept their child's existence secret, sometimes for decades.
• Prepare for any outcome, from a warm welcome to silence, and find support for yourself. See Unexpected DNA Results.