most people do not realize that when a
domestic adoption occurs that a u.s.
adopt D then has to birth certificates
they have an original birth certificate
which all of us in this theatre have and
they also have a second birth
certificate an amended birth certificate
so this evening I want to explain the
differences between these two documents
and the unique challenges that are faced
by many adult adoptees today and then I
will explain a proposal that I have to
change this very confusing odd and
archaic system that exists today so what
do we use birth certificates for we use
it for identity that tells who you are
when you were born
and where you were born these birth
certificates are used to enroll your
child in school if you’re getting a
Social Security card you better have
your birth certificate when you’re
obtaining a driver’s license or passport
if you’re applying for college financial
aid they will request that if you’re
applying for a marriage license if you
want to join the US military and more
and more states are requiring them to
register to vote for the first time so
what is it with these two birth
certificates how different are they the
original birth certificate is what those
of us in this theater have it explains
who gave birth to you it was the mother
on your birth certificate but it may or
may not list the father and that’s
because birth fathers were not given
legal rights until the early 1970s by a
US Supreme Court ruling so sometimes the
space for father is blank sometimes it
will list a what’s known as a legal
father and this could be someone who has
absolutely no biological connection to
the infant on the birth certificate the
legal father could be someone that the
was married to several years ago but now
divorced from legal father could be a
man in the military who’s been overseas
for a year who obviously is not
biologically related to this child when
an adoption occurs a second birth
certificate is then issued and this is
called an amended birth certificate this
certificate reads as if the adoptive
parent or parents gave birth to this
infant and I want to repeat that those
of you in genealogy your heads probably
spinning around right now but the
amended birth certificate reads as if
the adoptive parents gave birth to this
infant now at the bottom of all the
birth certificates there’s a signature
for the vital records registrar and it
has a date that that birth certificate
was issued on original birth
certificates that date is usually two or
three days after the birth of this child
with an amended birth certificate then
that can be weeks months or even years
later and so that that’s causing some
issues when you try to establish your
identity so when did this get so screwy
when did adult adoptees start having
trouble proving who they are and getting
their identity I believe it all goes
back to the u.s. Patriot Act and this
was the act that was an octa enacted by
Congress right after the terrorist
attacks on the East Coast and this was
in the year 2001 and the Patriot Act
initially was started so that money
could not be funneled into terrorism and
it’s an acronym some government workers
spent a lot of time coming up with this
one I’m sure so it stands for uniting
and strengthening America by providing
appropriate tools required to intercept
and obstruct Terrorism I love that so
the basic principle was to stop people
from opening back
accounts and then funneling the money to
terrorists so in order to open a bank
account the banking industry set up
parameters for establishing an identity
through the years that has kind of
morphed by state governments into you
have to prove your identity for several
reasons now and now in 2017 we
frequently have to prove that we are who
we say we are as I mentioned you have to
submit a birth certificate for a
passport application well if you’re an
adoptee applying for a passport for the
very first time and sending in your
amended birth certificate you have to
sign the same statement that every US
citizen has to get a passport warning
false statements made knowingly and loli
willfully in passport applications
including affidavits or other documents
submitted to support this application
are punishable by find and/or
imprisonment under US law including the
provisions of 18 USC one-zero-zero-one
18 USC 154 – and/or 18 USC 1621 well
it’s no surprise that often the
application that an adult adoptee makes
is denied by the US passport office and
it has returned because the birth
certificate looks odd it looks
fraudulent and a lot of that goes back
to the date that I mentioned on the
bottom of the birth certificate where it
says when it was issued so you’re
thinking well they have to birth
certificates why can’t they just submit
both of them with the passport
application well here’s the kicker
original birth certificates are
available to adult adoptees without
restriction restrictions in only nine
states right now
that’s Alabama Alaska Colorado Hawaii is
our most recent one added Kansas Maine
New Hampshire Oregon and Rhode Island
and even though you could obtain your
original birth certificate if you were
born in why this nine states they do not
agree on what constitutes an adult
adoptee in some states like Kansas it’s
18 in some states it’s 21 and in some
states you have to wait till you’re 25
before you can access your original
birth certificate so each state has
their own rules and regulations for
giving this original birth certificate
and in Kansas and I like to warn adult
adoptees about it because it can be
drawn to see you get the original birth
certificate and diagonally and bright
red across the document it reads void
and that is so this document cannot be
used for fraudulent purposes some states
Missouri for example stamp for
genealogical purposes only not to be
used for establishing identity so 22
states you will never be able to get
your original birth certificate period
it is not available to you 19 states now
have partial or access with restrictions
so what are some of those restrictions
and this is where the system appears
really bizarre limits may include span
of dates not allowed in some states if
you were born prior to for example 1941
or born after 1961 yes you can have your
original birth certificate but if you
are born between 1941 and 1961 sorry
you’re out of luck another restriction
that is commonly used is that you have
to prove both birth parents are deceased
well this can be difficult if you don’t
know whose names are on your original
birth certificate
now another restriction they require
therapy from a certified therapist or
social worker before we will release
your original birth certificate to you
the next absurd one is is one of my
favorites notarized permission from
adoptive parents so if you’re 70 years
old
you need notarized permission from your
90 something year old adoptive parents
now if one of those parents says no then
you don’t get your original birth
certificate they both have to notarize
that another restriction is to pay a
court approved confidential intermediary
the going rate right now is between four
and five hundred dollars and they will
ask your birth parents they will find
them hopefully and ask their permission
to release the original birth
certificate
now if the birth mother says yes and the
birth father says no you are out four
hundred to five hundred dollars and you
will not get your original birth
certificate another one of my favorite
absurd things is if you are a stepparent
say you were born and brought up by one
of your biological parents who then
married another partner and that partner
adopted you well some states will let
you look at the original birth
certificate still can’t have it but at
least you can look at it
so how absurd can these situations be
well as you can imagine they can get
really weird for example and these are
actual examples to two tall blue-eyed
blond parents adoptive parents went to
kindergarten roundup with their child
and this is for those of us that are
parents this is a big big deal
when you can finally take your child to
kindergarten roundup and enroll them for
public school so this couple went with
their daughter five-year-old daughter
and the daughter is beautiful she has
big brown eyes and black hair and she
has dark skin and so the parents
explained to the
school that yes this is our adopted
daughter and here is her birth
certificate and they present the amended
birth certificate and the school refuses
to enroll this child for school because
the signature at the bottom is dated two
years after the birth and so they do not
believe this is really their child
another example is a single male adopts
a child and the birth certificate
remember reads as if this parent gave
birth except there’s no woman on the
birth certificate so yeah he has no hope
again the passport widowed father
remarries and remarries a much younger
woman so the birth certificate then has
changed when she adopts her husband’s
child and on the amended birth
certificate it reads as if she gave
birth to this child
but she was seven years old at that time
so that looks odd a mother was enrolling
her child for soccer and this is another
instance where you have to show your
birth certificate to document the the
age group and the adoptive mother was
listed as having lived in a certain city
and state that she had never been to and
the person enrolling this child in
soccer was from that particular city and
state oh gosh what high school did you
go to what part of the city did you live
in so she had to admit that she had
never been there she had no idea what
the town was like I talked to a
genealogy group a few years ago a state
group and afterwards a man came up he
said can I tell you about my situation
and I said absolutely he grew up next
door to a rather elderly woman and this
woman adored this man and had watched
him grow up and she didn’t have any
other family and so she asked if he
would be willing to help her with being
the executor for her for the estate and
she would like to leave the house to him
so they went to an attorney and the
attorney
well why don’t you just adopt him so
they did the adoption occurred and the
vital statistics mailed the man his new
birth certificate which showed that the
next-door neighbor had given birth to
him and it was signed over 40 years
after his birth this poor guy has no
hope again any government services so
what can we do here’s my proposal
let’s eliminate these absurd amended
birth certificates I’d like to see them
abolished if you can stamp void across
an original birth certificate I think
you can stamp certificate of adoption
across the amended birth certificate we
need to quit pretending that the
adoptive current parents gave birth to
this child it’s just absurd and it’s
causing problems we need to archive the
original birth certificate with the
amended birth certificate which will now
call a certificate of adoption together
in the vital records department of each
state and when the parent of a minor
child needs a birth certificate she or
he will contact vital stats and both
documents will be sent and we need to
have more than nine states we need all
50 states to allow access to an original
birth certificate at age 18 and a birth
certificate is not just a simple piece
of paper a dear friend of mine and a New
Jersey adult tada D just had this
profound statement that that I love and
I want to end the talk with this if
birth certificates are not important
then why are they called vital records
thank you for listening
[Applause]
domestic adoption occurs that a u.s.
adopt D then has to birth certificates
they have an original birth certificate
which all of us in this theatre have and
they also have a second birth
certificate an amended birth certificate
so this evening I want to explain the
differences between these two documents
and the unique challenges that are faced
by many adult adoptees today and then I
will explain a proposal that I have to
change this very confusing odd and
archaic system that exists today so what
do we use birth certificates for we use
it for identity that tells who you are
when you were born
and where you were born these birth
certificates are used to enroll your
child in school if you’re getting a
Social Security card you better have
your birth certificate when you’re
obtaining a driver’s license or passport
if you’re applying for college financial
aid they will request that if you’re
applying for a marriage license if you
want to join the US military and more
and more states are requiring them to
register to vote for the first time so
what is it with these two birth
certificates how different are they the
original birth certificate is what those
of us in this theater have it explains
who gave birth to you it was the mother
on your birth certificate but it may or
may not list the father and that’s
because birth fathers were not given
legal rights until the early 1970s by a
US Supreme Court ruling so sometimes the
space for father is blank sometimes it
will list a what’s known as a legal
father and this could be someone who has
absolutely no biological connection to
the infant on the birth certificate the
legal father could be someone that the
was married to several years ago but now
divorced from legal father could be a
man in the military who’s been overseas
for a year who obviously is not
biologically related to this child when
an adoption occurs a second birth
certificate is then issued and this is
called an amended birth certificate this
certificate reads as if the adoptive
parent or parents gave birth to this
infant and I want to repeat that those
of you in genealogy your heads probably
spinning around right now but the
amended birth certificate reads as if
the adoptive parents gave birth to this
infant now at the bottom of all the
birth certificates there’s a signature
for the vital records registrar and it
has a date that that birth certificate
was issued on original birth
certificates that date is usually two or
three days after the birth of this child
with an amended birth certificate then
that can be weeks months or even years
later and so that that’s causing some
issues when you try to establish your
identity so when did this get so screwy
when did adult adoptees start having
trouble proving who they are and getting
their identity I believe it all goes
back to the u.s. Patriot Act and this
was the act that was an octa enacted by
Congress right after the terrorist
attacks on the East Coast and this was
in the year 2001 and the Patriot Act
initially was started so that money
could not be funneled into terrorism and
it’s an acronym some government workers
spent a lot of time coming up with this
one I’m sure so it stands for uniting
and strengthening America by providing
appropriate tools required to intercept
and obstruct Terrorism I love that so
the basic principle was to stop people
from opening back
accounts and then funneling the money to
terrorists so in order to open a bank
account the banking industry set up
parameters for establishing an identity
through the years that has kind of
morphed by state governments into you
have to prove your identity for several
reasons now and now in 2017 we
frequently have to prove that we are who
we say we are as I mentioned you have to
submit a birth certificate for a
passport application well if you’re an
adoptee applying for a passport for the
very first time and sending in your
amended birth certificate you have to
sign the same statement that every US
citizen has to get a passport warning
false statements made knowingly and loli
willfully in passport applications
including affidavits or other documents
submitted to support this application
are punishable by find and/or
imprisonment under US law including the
provisions of 18 USC one-zero-zero-one
18 USC 154 – and/or 18 USC 1621 well
it’s no surprise that often the
application that an adult adoptee makes
is denied by the US passport office and
it has returned because the birth
certificate looks odd it looks
fraudulent and a lot of that goes back
to the date that I mentioned on the
bottom of the birth certificate where it
says when it was issued so you’re
thinking well they have to birth
certificates why can’t they just submit
both of them with the passport
application well here’s the kicker
original birth certificates are
available to adult adoptees without
restriction restrictions in only nine
states right now
that’s Alabama Alaska Colorado Hawaii is
our most recent one added Kansas Maine
New Hampshire Oregon and Rhode Island
and even though you could obtain your
original birth certificate if you were
born in why this nine states they do not
agree on what constitutes an adult
adoptee in some states like Kansas it’s
18 in some states it’s 21 and in some
states you have to wait till you’re 25
before you can access your original
birth certificate so each state has
their own rules and regulations for
giving this original birth certificate
and in Kansas and I like to warn adult
adoptees about it because it can be
drawn to see you get the original birth
certificate and diagonally and bright
red across the document it reads void
and that is so this document cannot be
used for fraudulent purposes some states
Missouri for example stamp for
genealogical purposes only not to be
used for establishing identity so 22
states you will never be able to get
your original birth certificate period
it is not available to you 19 states now
have partial or access with restrictions
so what are some of those restrictions
and this is where the system appears
really bizarre limits may include span
of dates not allowed in some states if
you were born prior to for example 1941
or born after 1961 yes you can have your
original birth certificate but if you
are born between 1941 and 1961 sorry
you’re out of luck another restriction
that is commonly used is that you have
to prove both birth parents are deceased
well this can be difficult if you don’t
know whose names are on your original
birth certificate
now another restriction they require
therapy from a certified therapist or
social worker before we will release
your original birth certificate to you
the next absurd one is is one of my
favorites notarized permission from
adoptive parents so if you’re 70 years
old
you need notarized permission from your
90 something year old adoptive parents
now if one of those parents says no then
you don’t get your original birth
certificate they both have to notarize
that another restriction is to pay a
court approved confidential intermediary
the going rate right now is between four
and five hundred dollars and they will
ask your birth parents they will find
them hopefully and ask their permission
to release the original birth
certificate
now if the birth mother says yes and the
birth father says no you are out four
hundred to five hundred dollars and you
will not get your original birth
certificate another one of my favorite
absurd things is if you are a stepparent
say you were born and brought up by one
of your biological parents who then
married another partner and that partner
adopted you well some states will let
you look at the original birth
certificate still can’t have it but at
least you can look at it
so how absurd can these situations be
well as you can imagine they can get
really weird for example and these are
actual examples to two tall blue-eyed
blond parents adoptive parents went to
kindergarten roundup with their child
and this is for those of us that are
parents this is a big big deal
when you can finally take your child to
kindergarten roundup and enroll them for
public school so this couple went with
their daughter five-year-old daughter
and the daughter is beautiful she has
big brown eyes and black hair and she
has dark skin and so the parents
explained to the
school that yes this is our adopted
daughter and here is her birth
certificate and they present the amended
birth certificate and the school refuses
to enroll this child for school because
the signature at the bottom is dated two
years after the birth and so they do not
believe this is really their child
another example is a single male adopts
a child and the birth certificate
remember reads as if this parent gave
birth except there’s no woman on the
birth certificate so yeah he has no hope
again the passport widowed father
remarries and remarries a much younger
woman so the birth certificate then has
changed when she adopts her husband’s
child and on the amended birth
certificate it reads as if she gave
birth to this child
but she was seven years old at that time
so that looks odd a mother was enrolling
her child for soccer and this is another
instance where you have to show your
birth certificate to document the the
age group and the adoptive mother was
listed as having lived in a certain city
and state that she had never been to and
the person enrolling this child in
soccer was from that particular city and
state oh gosh what high school did you
go to what part of the city did you live
in so she had to admit that she had
never been there she had no idea what
the town was like I talked to a
genealogy group a few years ago a state
group and afterwards a man came up he
said can I tell you about my situation
and I said absolutely he grew up next
door to a rather elderly woman and this
woman adored this man and had watched
him grow up and she didn’t have any
other family and so she asked if he
would be willing to help her with being
the executor for her for the estate and
she would like to leave the house to him
so they went to an attorney and the
attorney
well why don’t you just adopt him so
they did the adoption occurred and the
vital statistics mailed the man his new
birth certificate which showed that the
next-door neighbor had given birth to
him and it was signed over 40 years
after his birth this poor guy has no
hope again any government services so
what can we do here’s my proposal
let’s eliminate these absurd amended
birth certificates I’d like to see them
abolished if you can stamp void across
an original birth certificate I think
you can stamp certificate of adoption
across the amended birth certificate we
need to quit pretending that the
adoptive current parents gave birth to
this child it’s just absurd and it’s
causing problems we need to archive the
original birth certificate with the
amended birth certificate which will now
call a certificate of adoption together
in the vital records department of each
state and when the parent of a minor
child needs a birth certificate she or
he will contact vital stats and both
documents will be sent and we need to
have more than nine states we need all
50 states to allow access to an original
birth certificate at age 18 and a birth
certificate is not just a simple piece
of paper a dear friend of mine and a New
Jersey adult tada D just had this
profound statement that that I love and
I want to end the talk with this if
birth certificates are not important
then why are they called vital records
thank you for listening
[Applause]
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