Where Do Adoptees Begin?- RI State General Adoption Laws & Voluntary Registry

If you're an adoptee from Rhode Island this is a great place to begin your search for biological information, albeit medical information or biological history or if you're looking to possibly search for a biological parent(s). Unfortunately I do not have such information on hand but I will make this process much easier for you than the guess work I had to endure to figure this all out, and point my fellow RI adptee's in the right direction.

Before we dive into this dynamic task I'll provide some basic information for all adoptees to get started. If you didn't know, all US born Adoptees were born with an initial birth certificate displaying their biological mother's name, possibly the biological father's name (not likely), and the adopted individuals name that the biological mother may have given him/her. This is also known as the adoptee's Original Birth Certificate, or OBC.

The first name that is provided at the time of birth is the legal name of the individual until the actual court proceeding for the adoption takes place. My adoption proceeding took place about 8 months after I was taken home by my adoptive parents. Once the court procedure takes place and the adoption is finalized the OBC goes in a file and sealed forever, at which point a new Birth Certificate is furnished for the adoptee with their new name placed on it. With the exception of 5 states adoptees are denied access to these files for the remainder of their lives as it stands now.

The fickle part is that every state has their unique set of laws regarding adoption and a unique set of circumstances and language supporting those laws. The level of criteria & reasonability the judges use for adoptees to possibly gain access to those files containing their OBC is also different state to state and judge to judge as well.

With that understanding, every adoptee is entitled to what is commonly known as non-identifying information. This information consists of any information about the adoptee without identifying their birth name or their biological parent(s) name. This information should consist of at least an adoptee's biological medical history, and any biological information such as heritage and history.

Biological facts such as above will vary considerably depending on the agency or maternity home that facilitated the adoption. For instance, I had a private adoption that was facilitated by the doctor who delivered me and therefore little biological information was collected for me. If an adoption agency or a maternity home facilitated the adoption there are greater odds that a higher level of care was used in gathering biological information. The only problem is, is that this information isn't always accurate because it's up to the discretion of the individual making the report.

Many sates, including RI, do have a voluntary passive registry which adoptees & biological mothers can join. This means that either party can join this registery and if there's a match found the state will contact both parties and inform them there has been a match. (This is a cliff note version there's much much more to that criteria so be sure to read the specs for yourself) Here's a couple flaws: 1) I have resided in RI for my entire life and never knew until I began this process there was a registery, so its not common knowlege. 2) Most mother's who relinquished went out of state to do so, so it's easy to deduce that if the adoptee isn't aware of the registery than most likely neither does the biological mother. Incidently, my biological mother was from Ohio.

I thought of this clever trick so I'll pass it on. If your adoption proceedings occured in RI this just may help or be another useful tool in searching. RI State Law sets forth that every adoption proceeding has to be posted in the News Paper. Back in the day it was set forth that the "Legal" post had to be in 3, yes THREE News Papers! For example, The Providnece Journal, The Warwick Beacon, The Pawtucket Valley Times. I've personally looked for mine in the Projo in 1973 and noticed that there were the same "LEGAL NOTICES" posted 3 weeks to the day consecutively that lead up to the proceeding. So even if you dont know your biological name and know the day or month your court date for your adoption was on you could be on your way!!

What's on these Legal Posts? The court date of the proceedure and the person they are putting on Notice. The State has to do this (to cover their ass) so anyone that has a legal right to the child can come forward and object to the adoption, because the state can't just give away a person's baby! Um..HELLO! Such as the biological father!! I guarantee you will not hear about this trick/ loophole anywhere else!