For the past several years, fellow Michigan adoptees who were born after World War II have contacted me seeking help. They want what they are entitled to as a birthright and under core human rights principles of international law: their original birth certificates (OBCs), held in secret, by the state of Michigan.
The number of queries I received from adoptees increased in the last year, since I won a nearly three-decade-old contest with the state to give me my original birth certificate and published my story about that victory on my website.
Because of these requests, I am publishing a short guide that may help some of the thousands of fellow adoptees born in Michigan deprived of their equal rights by Michigan’s discriminatory and harmful adoption laws. To navigate this system, adoptees will need to deal with state courts and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). That agency overseas the state’s public health bureaucracy and has ultimate authority for adoptees’ official vital records—including their original birth documents.
This guide provides practical advice and logistical assistance. You also will need to review the FAQs I have published on my website for my book on adoption. Also consult tips published by Bastard Nation’s Shea Grimm (dated but still relevant) on accessing your adoption records. This is not Michigan specific, however.
Michigan Adoptees Born Between 1945 and 1980
This guide focuses on Michigan adoptees born between May 28, 1945 and September 12, 1980. I was born during this time. According to the state’s website, “For those adoptions that occurred between May 28, 1945 and September 12, 1980, the release of the original birth certificate is contingent upon a court order.” As an adoptee seeking your OBC, that means you are almost certainly going to court, and it will not be easy. More on that shortly.
This 35-year span defined by law was not an accident. These were the boom years for adoption, when single women who became pregnant were pressured by society and many powerful medical, social work, and religious groups to give up millions of infants through the late 1970s. Thus the law intentionally harms the biggest pool of adopted citizens from the state by restricting their right to know who they are and their family ancestry and medical history.
Getting a Court Order: An Uphill Slog through a Hostile Environment
In terms of bureaucratic realities that define getting a vital record, those born before May 28, 1945 or after September 12, 1980 will face the greatest, most time consuming, and costliest legal barriers. Read this summary of state law, published on the Adoptee Rights Law Center website. The law is designed almost entirely to keep adoptees, particularly those born between 1945 and 1980, from ever knowing their identity and acquiring their original vital records. And if you survive the gauntlet of the mostly unresponsive state bureaucracy, you still face the opaque and poorly explained court petition process. (See this webinar I participated in on April 21, 2021, on how that works in Michigan.)
Rudy Owens highlights at a book reading the legal system that erases an adoptee’s identity and creates a new one, with two birth certificates.
Michigan’s Communications to Adoptees Seeking an OBC:
The state provides a short summary, which does not address how to navigate court order requests for adoptions that occurred between May 28, 1945 and September 12, 1980.
Key Points for Michigan Adoptees to Consider Before Beginning Court Advocacy for OBCs:
1. Current laws in Michigan, and the way its laws and vital records systems function today, are intended to prevent most Michigan adoptees from getting their original birth documents—forever. Remember that always. I will say that again: Remember that always. The political and legal systems governing adoption laws cause real harm to adoptees and deny them their basic human rights. You must be realistic how this plays out statewide and nationally. The laws vary by state. You cannot afford ignorance of the system or the players who control it. You must educate yourself about this reality. Know your friends and especially your opponents in your effort to achieve equal rights and your OBC.
2. No one will help you who works for the MDHHS, the state’s public health agency that controls your birth records. You can ask them for help, but you will not get it. The agency has an adversarial relationship with adoptees. In fact, you must be prepared to fight them, even once you get your court order—if you get one. They may even attempt to delay the release of your original birth certificate once presented with a judge’s ruling. This happened to me. See my FAQs also.
3. The Michigan Central Adoption Registry is a mostly unaccountable bureaucracy of one employee (Connie Stevens; stevensc2@michigan.gov) with no regulatory oversight. Do not contact it. Its website states it “is accessed by the court or agency; individual adopted persons do not contact the Registry.” This office does not answer phone calls, but may return one. Expect no help, even if you deserve it and need it.
4. The media may not be sympathetic to you, unless you have some emotional and tear-jerking reunion story. Overall, the media has a tepid interest in adoptee rights and in the past has viewed them in a discriminatory way—sometimes portraying them as uppity bastards who are not thankful they were taken in by loving families, etc. See the adoptee rights group Bastard Nation’s essay on this harmful stereotype. You can try to enlist the media, but do not assume the media will be a natural ally in the court of public opinion. That said, you should engage them, and you may find an ally in their ranks. Always try, and try again.
5. Remember, this takes time. You must give yourself anywhere from three months and much longer. You need to file your paperwork, advocate and push a court to set up a date, have your court date, and then submit, hopefully, your court order to Michigan Vital Records for your original birth certificate (OBC). You are running a marathon, not an 800-meter race. Stay focused on the end goal, always.
6. Rely on yourself. This is a personal journey. Most of us will do it alone. Most of us are not wildly rich and cannot afford to hire people to do unpleasant and tedious advocacy work. I encourage you not to seek help from any so-called confidential intermediaries or social workers. There are some true legal advocates out there who work on cases. I suggest contacting the Adoptee Rights Law Center for possible tips if you really have a strong case needing litigation.
Starting Your Court Order Request:
Adoptees in the donut hole years need to find the court of jurisdiction for adoption records requests. For Wayne County/Detroit, where I was born, it is the Family-Juvenile Division of the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan. Its address and contact information is:
Third Judicial Circuit Court, Family Division
Attention: Post Adoptions
1025 E. Forest Avenue
Detroit, MI 48207-1098
Tel: (313) 224-5261; direct line: (313) 833-0032
Circuit courts likely have jurisdiction for issuing court orders for an adoptee. Find your court of jurisdiction here. This may be the hardest detail to figure out. The Third Judicial Circuit Court covers anyone born in Detroit, and adoptees there number in the thousands because that was home to Crittenton General Hospital, one of the nation’s largest maternity hospitals that facilitated adoptions for more than 30 years.
Download or request the instructions from the court in your jurisdiction, or contact that court for additional information. The instructions from the Family-Juvenile Division of the Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan are found online. Make a copy for your records.
Here are the instructions for Wayne County adoptees seeking to set up a court date and to petition a judge. Before you send your request in, make a copy of everything. Send your request certified mail. Make a cover letter listing everything you are sending and be courteous and professional. Show the court and judge that you are a professional and have your case in order. Show them you know the law and your rights.
You will need to send the following:
- A $20 filing fee (as of 2016)
- A copy of your photo identification
- A copy of your adoptive birth certificate.
- A completed Release of Information Authorization Adult Adoptee (Form FIA 1920). Include in the comments area on this form that you are requesting your original birth certificate (it’s a short box that says “additional comments”—make your pitch about your rights to your record).
- A completed Request by Adult Adoptee for Identifying Information (Form FIA 1925).
- A Form PCA 327 Petition For Adoption Information and Order (note, this is not listed in required forms, and this was added as a last-minute requirement before my court date—so it won’t hurt to do it now).
- If the birth certificate you are requesting is for a deceased, direct descendant, proof of the relationship and death are required (ie: death certificate, birth certificate, etc.).
- Also, the above forms should be completed with the information regarding the adoptee.
- Provide a written statement, no longer than a page, making your case why you deserve your birth record. This is your story, so only you can write it. Note, this is not required, but STRONGLY encouraged.
Please visit this page to review the FAQs for court order requests and hearings. Go here for information published by MDHHS regarding that state’s adoption legislation and state forms to petition MDHHS for highly restricted vital records of adoptees born in Michigan.
(Last updated July 18, 2023)
This is a tragedy. My father was born inside this idiotic donut hole and I knew when beginning the search for his birth father that the laws just were not making sense. I even verbally expressed how illogical it was over the phone to someone in the Wayne County family court division.
One of the things I noted, was how ridiculous it is that they likely did not record identifying information for the birth parent if it was an open adoption and the adoptee was raised by one of their birth parents. They assume said birth parent would inform the child of their unknown birth parent’s info, not even considering the fact that some birth parents may not recall who the other birth parent was. Even if the parent recalls they may refuse to share, but regardless of their beliefs it is the right of the adult adoptee to learn who their unknown birth parent is (they didn’t ask to be adopted)
I also found it sad that those in this division refuse to do a quick search to find out whether or not the birth parent is deceased, on behalf of the Adoptee. I asked the person how can one provide proof said birth parent in question is deceased if the adoptee doesn’t even know the identity of the birth parent to begin with? They had no answer and basically said the Adoptee is s.o.l.
Why are states like MI set up like this and can we come together to petition that the law be changed? Has a petition already begun to amend the law and also make it a law to record identifying info on birth parents in an open adoption?
I set up an appointment for my father in early January 2021 to purchase the death certificate of a man who we believe to be his birth father, but couldn’t the court reject my father’s request if it turns out this person was not his birth father? Why does an adoptee need a valid reason to request THEIR information and learn where they come from?
If this process was a headache before, this pandemic definitely made it worse because now I can’t even talk to someone in the family division in person, and have to wait months for an appointment.
I almost cried for the possibility of my dad not being able to learn the identity of his birth father before he himself leaves this Earth (you said it took you 30 years to fight the courts for your rights!) I definitely will keep fighting but it would certainly make it a lot more gratifying if he were still around for me to share the news with him.
Thank you for sharing your story! I truly appreciate it 🥲
I am in that “donut hole as well, having been born in 1953. Both sets of parents are long dead now, so why there is this insane problem, I don’t know. I know my birth name through my adopted mother, who showed me the adoption papers in 1980. She never opposed my looking for my birth family (she just didn’t want to meet them, which if you knew my birth parents, is a decision I agree with–seriously, my adoption summary reads like a Charles Dickens novel), yet here I am, 69 years of age, with a known birth name (through my birth sister, with whom I made contact in 2002) but may not be able to get an original birth certificate. What about adult adoptees’ rights? Why are we treated like children in this matter? The laws need to be changed to give us rights, too.
I’m so sorry that your father did not live to be able to get something so relatively minor in the scale of things, yet so meaningful and available to all who were not lucky enough to be born before 1945 or after 1980.
Marie: Thanks for sharing in detail how difficult and maddening it is for an adoptee or their families in Michigan to access a basic vital record, which is withheld entirely without any justification and in a blatant and harmful discriminatory way. Changing the state’s prejudicial statutes is the way to reform this. As for the courts and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, they are intentionally unhelpful to adoptees seeking even basic answers to basic questions. I wrote this to provide information that should be the job of the state and courts. They are failing in meeting the standards of the Michigan State Constitution as well in this regard.
STATE OF MICHIGAN….
I was adopted in 1988. Born 1976.
Ward of state at 6/ 14 ADOPTION finalized.
15 Emicapted..
To date 2022/October,
On registry level 5 for child abuse (disciplining how my adopted mom did me and sister’s, after reporting to multiple worker’s and running away multiple homes and times, yet got told as child stop being bad and do as told, can’t get knowledge of SELF, now it’s wrong how I was TAUGHT yet have state bring ones that age out that can’t do as told. Or State puts girls in care of one that on paper why Im on registry?? That I had no idea was on and can’t get expunged??.
State of Michigan…
RAISED Me… And what I get I return??
No knowledge of who I am???
And told I can’t get original..
I can’t find anything pertaining to my Adoption…
Michigan governments departments says THEY WON’T CAN’T REFUSE TO HELP.. OR GIVE ME A HISTORY OF WHO I AM??
I just read your post and my heart goes out to you. This is such an injustice. The foster care system is an abysmal failure in Michigan. I know because I was in 6 homes in 24 months and was abused in every single one. It’s really like no one cares about adoptees or their rights of those born between 1945 and 1980.
I was also finally adopted and got the booby prize–an adoptive father who abused me and an adoptive mum who enabled him. Now I did receive cultural and educational advantages which I could not have gotten in my original family, but the abuse has left very deep scars that I’m still dealing with and probably will until I die. So, I understand your situation somewhat, I think.
Why be taken from our birth families, only to be abused in both foster care and later in adoptive homes, if a person actually does get adopted? Do they ever screen these prospective adoptive and foster parents. And then, we get told we aren’t even worthy to have our original birth certificates?
I can only hope that you and I and thousands of others will live to see our rights restored. Because they should never have been taken away in the first plae.
I was adopted when I was three years old. My birth mother married when I was three and her husband adopted me.
When I was 17, I went to the clerks office in the town I was born in to get a copy of my birth certificate for a senior trip I was to go on to the Bahamas. At that time my mother told the clerk to seal the original copy. The copy I have, showed my adoptive father as my father.
I tried to get a copy of the original, but was denied because of the adoption when I was three. I don’t believe this “ donut law” applies to my case since I sm with my birth mother, but I still am unable to get my original. I’m trying to get it now because my mother never told me who my biological father was/is. She passed away, taking that secret with her.
What can I do?
Erin, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t provide legal advice. The information I know that is available via the state of Michigan is published. You may need to see legal counsel. I would recommend contacting: adopteerightslaw.com, which serve adopted persons with legal issues because they are adopted.
Hi Erin, I am the same as you – I was adopted by my mother’s husband at age 5 (all kept secret from me until I was 37 years old). I actually was able to get my OBC and some adoption records. As it turns out, what the state of Michigan did (in 1969 anyway) was terminate my birth mother’s rights, make me a ward of the state and then adopted me to my birth mother and her husband; all on the same day. So effectively making my adoption a full on adoption even though I was biologically related to one adoptive parent. Complete insanity! And then my original birth certificate was sealed.
This is thoroughly insane and horrible. The vital records folks should have never sealed a record when the birth mother information had not changed–in essence taking rights from two people at once. I can’t understand how the state erased your mother’s rights, along with your rights, in taking this completely harmful action that should never have happened.
I am looking for an older brother adopted out between 1955-1960. My mother Shirley Ann Kenoshmeg had him before I was born. She lived in Petoskey Michigan & was a member of the Little Traverse Bay of Odawa Indians. I have my DNA on ancestry.com
I’m sorry I am unable to help you, Gary. You may wish to seek the services of a search angel. Michigan denies adoptees rights to know their family, and he could be looking for his wider biological family, if he even knows he was born in Michigan and is alive. You may wish to see what resources the Tribe provides to those searching for kin separated from families. Removing infants from Native families was shockingly common, on top of the massive number of adoptions in this era.
I was adopted in MI as an infant, that said, I have located both my birth father and birth mother and their children (my half siblings). I know them, talk with them regularly, visit them, if they sign an affidavit can’t I get my original birth certificate with identifying information? I even have a paternity test and DNA test to prove it all?
I provided documentation including a copy of a signed release by my birth mother. It was rejected by state officials in requesting my original birth certificate. I went straight to the top of the agency. The bureaucrats in the lower ranks tell you no to everything by default–ignore the lower level gatekeepers. They don’t care about you and your rights. Their goal is to suppress class adoptee from ever accessing vital records, forever, to ensure all of them have no equal rights as a group. That means they will force you to court. I would try and document and then see what happens. I did that and still went to court. The media likely won’t care about your story either, but still contact them too. My book provides this story, final two chapters. Good luck, Regina.
This just made me sick to my stomach the system has failed everyone on this page Born and raised in Saginaw Michigan adopted out at age 6 months old my adopted dad was an alcoholic and my adopted mother suffered from depression they got divorced at the age of 14 my Adopted mother put in foster care I bounced from house to house until I was 17 years old I WON’T speak about the abuse you wouldn’t believe me if I told you got married at 18 had my first baby at 18 moved to Indiana been here ever since can’t get no answers no birth certificate my middle baby suggested that I go through ancestry she did it first swarms of family on my mother’s side stepped up my dad not a clue I’ll be 52 in October still no birth certificate so last year I did the ancestry just to find out my mother’s gone she was believed to have been murdered she was a cold case file they reopened it her body was found on lake Erie by cedar point I have a brother somewhere only God knows where and still no birth certificate WHERE IS THE HUMANITY IN THIS? OVERWHELMED IS AN UNDER STATEMENT