Do adopted people get a new Birth Certificate?

Craftyscholar

Loretta wrote: »

Guessing that they would be inefficient I got my certificate and in a couple of hours was talking to my birth family in Ireland and a couple of days later had gone over to meet them. By the time SS got round to me I had forgotten I had ever spoken to them and they told me I had done it all wrong - Oh well!!

Loretta, I am delighted that your direct contact went well.
However I would beg any adoptee (particularly under the old 'closed' system) to think long and hard before making direct contact and consider going through an intermediary like NORCAP.

If I had made direct contact I am certain my birth mother would have put the phone down as soon as I identified myself or if I had spoken to one of my half-siblings, who have no idea of my existence, I would have caused great upset to the family.

As it was she spoke once to the intermediary, but made it clear she wanted no further contact.

It does not always have a happy ending.

kindofagilr

My dad was adopted, he only got the short birth certificate.

miserly_mum

Craftyscholar wrote: »

Loretta, I am delighted that your direct contact went well.
However I would beg any adoptee (particularly under the old 'closed' system) to think long and hard before making direct contact and consider going through an intermediary like NORCAP.

If I had made direct contact I am certain my birth mother would have put the phone down as soon as I identified myself or if I had spoken to one of my half-siblings, who have no idea of my existence, I would have caused great upset to the family.

As it was she spoke once to the intermediary, but made it clear she wanted no further contact.

It does not always have a happy ending.

At the time I found my birth family I was 32.My Mother had died the previous year but I did meet my brother, sisters and their children.

They were nice people and made me very welcome etc but after the initial excitement/novelty had worn off we had very little in common. Certainly not enough to bond.

In my opinion you can't just become one big happy family if there has been no common ground for 20 or 30 odd years.

We do still exchange xmas cards and the odd message or two via facebook but thats it. To be honest that suits all of us. I'm getting married soon and it never occurred to me to invite any of them. Not in a bad way, only because I don't see them as either family or friends.

Craftyscholar

miserly_mum wrote: »

They were nice people and made me very welcome etc but after the initial excitement/novelty had worn off we had very little in common. Certainly not enough to bond.

In my opinion you can't just become one big happy family if there has been no common ground for 20 or 30 odd years.

Thanks for sharing mm.
I think we all read the stories of happy reunions and just assume it will be like that.

When I eventually got my head round the events I realised that what I had really needed was more information about my adoption. Once I had that I could move on.

Realistically I would have been in the same situation as you. My life experience has been so different to my half-siblings that I doubt if we would have found any common ground.

seven-day-weekend

I am glad I have the information about my birth mother and bear her no ill will that she had me adopted (unmarried 17-year-olds in 1949 didn't have a lot of choice). but have never felt the urge to find her as she would be a total stranger.

The only thing is I wish I knew if there was any medical history I should know about.

lfckerry

You will need a full(long) adoption certificate for passport applications etc.

The short ones were issued at time of adoption and have no mention of adoption on them but the full ones are called a certificate of adoption.