Finding out if you are adopted

EvaLittleThing

Hi,

Recently started suspecting that I may be adopted.
What would be the quickest way of finding out one way or the other?

I hear there is an Adopted Children's Register... would be great if I could just ring someone up given them my name and they would tell me if I'm on it.

Or would it be on your birth cert?

Would appreciate help, thanks

The_Conductor

EvaLittleThing-

You can check out the Adopted Children's Register- it is a physical book though- you can't just ring a phone number and have someone say 'Yes' or 'No' to you. At the moment its in the GRO's reading room on Werbergh Street (in the old dole office).

Might talking to your parents be a start- rather than spending the day in the GRO's reading room?

EvaLittleThing

The_Conductor wrote: »

EvaLittleThing-

You can check out the Adopted Children's Register- it is a physical book though- you can't just ring a phone number and have someone say 'Yes' or 'No' to you. At the moment its in the GRO's reading room on Werbergh Street (in the old dole office).

Might talking to your parents be a start- rather than spending the day in the GRO's reading room?

Thanks for your reply
Not really an option for me to talk to them.

Would it take a whole day to find it?

The_Conductor

EvaLittleThing wrote: »

Thanks for your reply
Not really an option for me to talk to them.

Would it take a whole day to find it?

Its a ledger- with names and dates of birth. The adopted children's register has your adopted name (if you are indeed adopted)- not the original name you might have been given. It could well be that it may only take you an hour or two- its definitely not an all-day job- but you may have to go through the book a few times- I find after reading a few pages, the entries all start to blur into one another......... No harm bringing a friend to help- if you get news that you'd rather not, they might provide a little moral support.

tyview

Have you got a birth cert? If you do check if it actually says 'Birth certificate' or extract from adoption register. If it is an actual original birth cert with your current name on it then there was no adoption so the entry wouldnt be in the books mentioned above. your entry would be in the usual registration books for your year of birth. There are cases of 'illegal' adoptions where a child was born to a woman but when the birth was registered the biological parents names are not recorded but instead the new parents names. As far as I know though, this was going back a while. If this was the case there is no record of any adoption, pretty much anywhere.

The_Conductor

Not necessarily- most certs I've seen are simply labelled short form Birth Certificate (with no long form cert available for adopted people). Since the last change- they're no longer legally permissable for many purposes (only the long form cert- which as an adopted person we don't have, or the extract of the adopted children's register (which anyone over the age of 20, probably doesn't have).

If your certificate states 'Extract of the Adopted Children's Register'- then you are adopted.
If your certificate states Long form birth certificate- then you are not adopted.
If your certificate states 'Short Form Birth Certificate'- you may, or may not be adopted (the GRO used charge a lesser amount for the short form certificates- which made them very popular with people, in lieu of the longer forms- esp. as they used be equally acceptable (not any more though)).

If your form simply says 'Short Form Birth Certificate'- you cannot assume it means you are adopted, or not adopted- anyone could have had one of these certs.

The_Conductor

tyview wrote: »

As far as I know though, this was going back a while. If this was the case there is no record of any adoption, pretty much anywhere.

It depends on the agency- it has transpired that some Rathmines records did exist, remember? More often than not- there may be no records- or as also often happened- its not unusual for the records to be complete and utter works of fiction.

EvaLittleThing

So how hard would it be to adopt illegally, could you simply register the birth under the wrong name?

fleet

The other route is a blood test or gene test.

Moonbeam

EvaLittleThing wrote: »

So how hard would it be to adopt illegally, could you simply register the birth under the wrong name?

It depends on what age you are but go get a copy of your birth cert,anyone can it is a good start.
It is pretty hard to adopt illegally and register the child as yours,but that is not to say that it has not been done in the past!

EvaLittleThing

I was born in 1985. Birth cert is the common one. So probably not adopted. Tbh it was just a pretty baseless suspicion that kept bugging me. I mean I assume someone could just write a different name in and who would argue otherwise right?
Either way I'm not going to ask any one for their DNA.

rinsjwind

You could just write in to the adoption authority with your name and date of birth and encl a copy of your ID and ask for the name of the adoption agency you were adopted from. They will either refer you to an agency or send you a puzzled letter saying they can't find you!

I think most sources agree that the illegal birth registration racket petered out around the late 70's/early 80's so if the AAI don't have a record then you probably aren't adopted but, as other posters say, only a DNA test would be conclusive and even then, some adoptions (legal and otherwise) were by aunts or grandparents of the child so even that might not prove anything.

On the other hand, you might just have a case of "These Idiots Can't Really Be My Relatives Syndrome" which is a condition suffered by every member of every family at some stage of their lives : -)

All the best.

Rins

The_Conductor

EvaLittleThing wrote: »

I was born in 1985. Birth cert is the common one. So probably not adopted. Tbh it was just a pretty baseless suspicion that kept bugging me. I mean I assume someone could just write a different name in and who would argue otherwise right?
Either way I'm not going to ask any one for their DNA.

Its quite a serious offence for someone to provide false information to the GRO. In any event- the information these days is furnished by the hospital concerned to the GRO- and parents then go to the GRO and confirm the information, provide signatures etc- before being given a birth certificate. Aka- a parent (or anyone else) can't just wander into the GRO and tell them they want to register a baby- the GRO has to have received notification of the birth in advance, by one of the notifying agencies with a Y flag. This doesn't normally happen for 2-3 days after the birth- or if there is a bank holiday involved, it can be a little longer.

Its not the case that you can just put whatever you want on a birth cert- it may have happened in the past- but its certainly not possible any more.

The_Conductor

rinsjwind wrote: »

You could just write in to the adoption authority with your name and date of birth and encl a copy of your ID and ask for the name of the adoption agency you were adopted from. They will either refer you to an agency or send you a puzzled letter saying they can't find you!

They are quite capable of sending 'puzzled letters' to adopted people too, unfortunately- please don't rely on this method- its terribly hit and miss.

The_Conductor

EvaLittleThing wrote: »

So how hard would it be to adopt illegally, could you simply register the birth under the wrong name?

Illegal adoptions were more the exception rather than the rule- with a peak seeming to have happened around 1976-1977 (the peak for adoptions in general being about 2-3 years previous- 1973-1974, which corresponds with when the government decided to do the right thing, and afforded single mothers access to social welfare and children's benefit for the first time (June-July 1974- was when the staff actually started processing applications). From a social science perspective, and I hate looking at it clinically- it would infer that a significant number of adoptions in Ireland were purely on economic grounds- the social stigma attached to single parents, would not have deterred large numbers of women from keeping their children, had the government allowed them access basic social welfare, akin to those afforded to mothers with children born in marriage.

From 1977-1978- the numbers involved in illegal adoption (which were never that high) would have fallen off a cliff- there would have been a case here, a case there- but by and large, the practice was consigned to history around then.

Some agencies (such as the aforementioned Rathmines monstrosity) appear to have facilitated a far higher number of illegal adoptions, than their small enough sizes would lead one to believe possible.