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Adoption - finding out about your birth parents
Obtaining an original birth certificate
If you are adopted and aged 20 or over, the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985 allows you to apply for a copy of your original birth certificate. Write to:
Adult Adoption Information Officer,
Central Registry
PO Box 10526
Wellington
Application for orginal birth certificate:
Your certificate will be sent to the branch of the Adoption Information and Services Unit which is nearest your home. This certificate will give the date and place of your birth, sex, and original first names if they were put on the register. It may show basic birth parent details.
If the details of one or both of your birth parents appear on the original birth certificate you will be sent a list of counsellors. You must tell the Registrar-General who you have chosen from this list and your birth certificate will be sent to the relevant counsellor. This person will contact you and arrange for you to collect the certificate. You can discuss with him/her ways of searching for your birth parents and making a sensitive approach.
Tracing your birth mother or father
Birth mother
Your adoptive family may know more details. Ask them first.
Your birth mother’s first and family names will be on your original certificate. If she had an uncommon surname look on the Telecom NZ White pages. Also try the electoral rolls which are held at the Central Library.
If you don’t find her, it may be because your birth mother married after the adoption and has a new surname. You can obtain a copy of her marriage registration details from Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Ask for an electronic print-out. This will include information on the officiating minister and witnesses and may lead you to people who know about your birth mother and her family.
Another suggestion is to look for your birth mother's birth registration details by looking through the index to births on microfiche at the Central Library. Her age will have been given on your original birth certificate so it is easy to work out when she would have been born. Her registration details will tell you who her parents (your birth grandparents) were. They may be still alive and able to be contacted to give you help.
Birth father
Your birth father will not be mentioned unless he is on the original birth certificate. The Adoption Unit may have information about him but may not give you this if it would identify him. You will need to ask your birth mother or birth relatives for information about your birth father.
No birth parents given on your birth certificate?
If there are no details of your birth parents on the birth certificate, a veto has been placed by them. You will receive the certificate directly at the address you have provided on the form, together with a list of counsellors. You may want to discuss the situation with one of them. A veto lasts for ten years but can be lifted at any time. Sometimes birth parents provide a letter of explanation as to why they placed a veto and you may ask if Child, Youth and Family holds any information about your adoption by writing to:
The Adoption Information and Services Unit
Child, Youth and Family
Private Bag 6901
Marion Square
Wellington
Even if you find a veto has been placed you can still continue your search. A veto only stops identifying information being released.
Note: this seldom happens now because there are few vetoes.
Organisations which can help
- Adoption Information and Services Unit
- at the Department of Child, Youth and Family, ph (03) 9616120, offers support and information for adopted adults who are searching for birth parents - both pre and post reunion.
- They hold the 1945-1990 microfiche to the Registrar-General’s Indexes to marriages and deaths and a nationwide-set of electoral rolls for 2005 which can be searched volume-by-volume.
- They can request a New Zealand-wide search for marriage and death information 1991-.
- They can do a similar search in Australia.
- Work from names on an original birth certificate to obtain current addresses.
- Christchurch Adoption Triangle
- offers "free and confidential support and advice on adoption issues".
- Jigsaw
- aims to help anyone with adoption queries. This organisation does not operate in Christchurch.
For more information check out the CYF website.
If you need any more help ask at any desk at our libraries.
