United States Adoption Research Strategies, 1900s-2000s

Assembling Information and Documents

 * '''Adoptive parents knowledge: Discuss the details of the adoption with the adoptive parents or other close relatives.
 * Adoption agency used: Determine the name and contact information of the adoption agency the adoptive parents used.
 * Documents: Gather any documents
 * Amended birth certificate
 * An amended birth certificate, created after an adoption is finished, lists the names of the adoptive parents just as if the child had been born to them originally.
 * Many people will have an amended birth certificate, with no access to the original. About half of the States allow adults to have access to their original birth certificates, thus providing them the names of their birth parents.
 * In other States, an original birth certificate may be obtained through a court petition.
 * Hospital records
 * Other identifying and non-identifying information.