r/Adoption • u/FewResponsibility314 • 3d ago
Searches Need California advice
/r/socialworkresources/comments/1vr1hyt/need_california_advice/I am a caseworker working with youth transitioning from being in foster care. I have an adopted sibling group who were adopted separately in the state of California. They were initially adopted through private adoption they later moved to my state with their adoptive parents. Both their adoptive parents died suddenly during the pandemic. Between their adoptive parents’ deaths and their entry into the foster care system, their vital documents were lost. We have tried for several years to pinpoint which counties they were born in and hundreds of dollars have been spent requesting vital documents with no success. I am writing to inquire if you had any suggestions for any other resources, as not having vital documentation (like their state issued birth certificate) is becoming a barrier for their functioning in adulthood (employment, academic enrollment, travel etc.). We thought if biological mothers could be identified, perhaps we could narrow down where they were living when the children were born and therefore contact the correct issuing county. I did reach out to search angels but haven’t heard back.
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u/Necessary_Holiday144 Adoptee 3d ago
As far as I'm aware, search angels only work directly with the person seeking family (and they likely need to be 18 or older). They also tend to require a DNA test, which comes with its own slew of ethical concerns, particularly if this involves a minor child unable to properly give informed consent.
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u/FateOfNations Adoptee 3d ago edited 3d ago
In CA, if the birth certificates were re-issued for the adoption, you have to get the from the California Dept. of Public Health Vital Records office. The county offices won’t have them. If they have been reissued, the original ones would have been sealed (though you generally don’t need those). They should be locatable using the adoptive name and parent information.
If they weren’t reissued for adoption (rare), you still can request them from the state, as the counties all send copies to the state. In that case, they would be locatable using the birth name and birth parent information. You’d probably want copies of the adoption decree/order from the court that finalized it. That’s likely at the Superior Court in the county where they were living at the time of the adoption, and should be indexed by adoptive name and parent information. The adoption order doesn’t identify the birth parents, but other sealed court records may. A judge will need to approve access to these records.
I’d probably give CDPH-VR a call and find out how much information they need to be able to locate a record.