Today it’s my
privilege to introduce my friend, julie j. We met at Lost Daughters where we are both
sisters/bloggers. I’m relentlessly drawn
to kind people. Collecting them as friends is sort of an addiction. So that totally explains why I quickly felt an affinity
with julie j. Yes, the small ‘j’s’ are on purpose. No need to correct my
grammar.
Not only is julie j one of the kindest, most helpful people I know --- she's also an absolute treasure trove of information on all things OBC’s,
ABC’s and so much more. And... she agreed to do an interview here today on that
subject. Read more about the amazingness that is julie j in her bio at the end
of this post.
Here we go:
Deanna: Most people have no idea that the majority of
adoptees do not have their actual birth certificate. Could you please explain
to those reading today, what most adoptees have versus the rest of the
population?
julie j: Yes, it would be my pleasure to share information
on this subject, Deanna. Everyone born in the United States has a birth
certificate filled out and placed on file with the state of their birth. This
is a historical document that accurately records the details of their birth as
it actually happened – the who, what, where, when, etc. Everyone is only born
once, so those facts will never, ever change, no matter how many times legal
custody of that child may later change. In that respect, everyone in the
population is all the same so far.
When someone is adopted at any point in their lives, even in
all step-parent adoptions, the court will issue a final adoption decree. This
specifies who the adults are who will now be legally responsible for the child.
The states don’t stop there though, even though they can and should. They
will (unnecessarily) “seal” that individual’s original birth certificate away,
in most cases forever, from everybody, including from the individuals themselves.
That means in most states, the truth is locked away somewhere and nobody is
generally allowed to access it. The state will then create a fake, or “amended”
certificate that the individual will be forced to use for all purposes for the
rest of their life.
How is this document different from their real one? Apart
from the filing dates, these are designed to resemble real birth certificates.
The fake, or “amended” birth certificates, filed months to years after the
original ones, claim that the adopting parents gave birth, and they are listed
as the mother and father on the amended birth certificate. All of their
names, ages, and location details are entered in the places where the natural
parents were. The adopting parents have the option of changing any or all parts
of the child’s name too, and most (again, unnecessarily) do that. In some
cases, places and dates are changed as well. Then the state registrar signs
his/her signature at the bottom, “verifying” that the fake one is the exact and
true record of the birth and affixes the official state seal to the document.
(If anyone else committed that type of felony forgery, they would be facing
jail time). Because there can only be one “official” record of birth on file
for anyone at any given time, this is what all adopted adults still have today.
To sum it up, the original identity and roots are wiped out, and what
adoptees have left is a lie, or commonly referred to as “legal fiction.”
Deanna: Why is it so significant that adoptees have their
original birth certificate?
julie j: This is significant for several reasons. First,
birth certificates belong to the person who was born and named on it. Birth
certificates are not property ownership papers, like car titles, that need to
change to reflect each new transfer to a new owner. That’s what the adoption
decree was for, to show a change in legal custody. People are not property!
Their true identity should be respected and preserved for them by the
trustees of that information, not stolen from them when they are too young to
remember their own truths. Not knowing the truth does not make the truth cease
to exist. It does not change the truth. Honesty is the best policy because it
helps adoptees to form an authentic identity and to live an authentic life.
Second, in addition to all the purposes non-adoptees use
theirs, originals are useful to adoptees for many important reasons. For
instance:
• for knowledge of self, name, accurate details of birth
• for
tracing family origins, medical, and ethnic information
• to establish rightful
ties to genealogical societies, tribe memberships, scholarship eligibility,
etc.
• to obtain a passport for travel outside of the country because the
federal government does not accept the fake birth certificates the states have
created after a year, as proof of citizenship.
• in some states, adoptees have
had problems obtaining driver’s or marriage licenses
• originals can be
required to clear some high-level security jobs
Simply put, originals should not ever be tampered with. The
reason they were taken and forged in the first place had more to do with a
different era when children born to single parents had their certificates
stamped in big, red letters “illegitimate.” That reason no longer exists, with
half of all children born to unmarried parents, single parenthood is no longer
the great social stigma it once was.
Nobody could have foreseen, nor approved
of, the multitude of future problems tampering with certificates would cause
for the adoptee and their descendants. Today the reason the practice of sealing
and creating amended ones continues, has more to do with adoptive parents who
think of it more as an entitlement for themselves, as either proof of their
parenthood and/or an assurance of no interference from the adoptee’s natural
family. These reasons are fading too, as most adoptions are “open” now, and in
theory, it is more widely recognized that adoption is meant to be for the
adoptee’s benefit before anyone else’s.
Deanna: I have
actually had people say to me, "Why is it such a big deal that adoptees
have their original birth certificate? Is this really that important in the
grand scheme of things?" What would your response be to such rationale?
julie j: That brings us to the most significant reason of
all - Equality. All adults should be treated equally. Non-adoptees can access
their own birth certificates by going through their state office of vital
statistics and paying a small fee. Adoptees should not be discriminated against
in any respect by being required to petition for and receive court orders, or
to get permission slips from any 3rd parties, or to pay huge processing fees plus
huge legal costs, or by having either counselors or intermediaries imposed upon
them to micromanage the entire unneeded process for them. By the way, having
someone else access birth certificates on an adoptee’s behalf or having a third
party save them a copy of their original from before it was sealed, is NOT an
example of equality! When any subset of society is denied full equal rights,
that should be of major concern to ALL of us. Justice denied to one, is justice
denied to all.
Deanna: How is the
amending of birth certificates harmful, or at the very least, not best practice?
julie j: Being disrespectful to the adoptee and his/her
natural family by deleting their identity and attempting to hide it from them
forever is certainly not best practice. Having the government act as an
accomplice in discrimination, altering vital documents, and changing someone’s
identity without their knowledge or consent is simply unacceptable, and it is
not at all necessary in order to provide anything any child needs. Being
completely cut off from their roots can be harmful to those affected.
Deanna: How will
adoptees death certificates be affected, and how will this also affect future
generations?
julie j: When I was still in the early stages of tracing my
own genealogy, before the days of DNA, vital records of birth, marriage, and death
certificates proved invaluable in my research. With each new document that
arrived, it would offer fresh clues of where to look next to expand upon my
growing, authentic family tree. Records would list the names of parents and
possibly include their ages and places of birth. It was always thrilling to
discover each new, mother’s maiden name. Then I would research their parents,
and so on and so forth, as far back as I could go on each branch. No wonder
genealogy is one of the biggest hobbies out there!
While stories of any
specific ancestor who may have been raised by someone other than their own
parents, may be an interesting side note, it is not that other family’s
genealogy I would be interested in tracing back from that point, it would be my
own natural family. They may have been very nice people indeed, just not my own
roots. (If I had wanted fantasy, I would have just pretended my own adoptive
family tree replaced mine and not bothered researching at all).
Now that we are aware of the inaccuracies reflected on
adoptees’ birth certificates, let’s consider that adoptees’ future death
certificates will also contain those same inaccuracies. In fact, any document
that requires listings of “mother” and “father.” Think about what you may have
listed on your last census form or on your own marriage license. How about what
you listed as “mother’s maiden name” on your own children’s birth certificates?
It is estimated that there are between 6 to 7 million adoptees in the U.S. That
should begin to give you an idea of the magnitude that adoption, as it’s been
practiced, has all but ensured the mangling up our records and authentic
roots for many generations to come, across millions of families, and the
inaccuracies are deeply embedded in genealogical data bases, most unknowingly.
Not only will this create a situation where an adoptee’s entire existence on
paper was a lie (or “legal fiction,” if you prefer) from birth to marriage to
death, but descendants many generations down the line, will be barking up the
wrong trees if they access an adoptee’s certificates and proceed to follow the
adoptive branches without realizing that’s what they even are. Vital records do
not specify that birth, marriage, and death records are affected by adoption.
It is just implied and assumed to be exclusively natural families, so it’s
very misleading, all with the government’s blessing. This dilutes the accuracy
of all family records everywhere.
How do we begin to correct all the family errors already out
there and avoid additional future ones? One way is for all of us to write our
stories as best as we know them. Pass them down to our children and
grandchildren. Explain the relationships, the known and unknowns, the
corrections, and the inconsistencies. Don’t let our stories get lost or
distorted any more. Publish them if you can to preserve them.
As for
obituaries, they can always include details of additional family members and
their stories, but definitely the official documents should be kept true, so as
to reduce future confusion. Another way is to help restore adoptees’ rights to
their original documents and even better, work to prevent their alteration in
the first place. Raising a child should not require forging of their birth or
death records. Society is really going to have to re-think the priorities on
that one. Of course we all know DNA is becoming the next gold mine of family
truths when documents claim something else. We should make the best use of it
we can.
Thank you for asking about adoption and vital certificates.
Two Links:
For legislative info on the states that have restored equal
rights back to adoptees, or are in the process of doing so, see AAC - State Legislation
Through education and advocacy, the American Adoption
Congress promotes honesty, openess and respect for family connections in
adoption, foster care and assisted reproduction.
For info on how you
can get involved in helping this worthy cause, see Adoptee Rights Coalition
julie j is an adult
adoptee who was stolen from her family as a young child. She was in American
foster care in the early 1960’s and then later illegally adopted. She has
happily been in reunion since ’93, thanks to ISRR. She recently acquired her
OBC through a court order. julie j is
a wife, mother, business owner, family preservationist, activist for adoptee
rights, child advocate and adoption search angel. Her other interests include
reading, theater, genealogy, music, games and working out. One of her future
goals is to become a CASA volunteer.
*All photos besides julie j's avatar courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
