Finding and accessing records
Will the adoption records still exist?
What other information may exist?
Who/what is the Registrar General?
What if I am having difficulty finding the agency that placed my child?
What happens if the adoption was arranged privately?
What happens if I live abroad?
What if my child was brought to the UK for adoption?
Will the adoption records still exist?
Since 1975, the law required that adoption agencies must keep their records for at least 75 years for those adoptions that took place before 30th December 2005. After that date adoption records are required to be kept for 100 years.
In most cases where an agency has arranged the adoption, records should exist, but some records may have been wholly or partially destroyed or just be “missing”. Records, whether held electronically or on paper, are also vulnerable to various forms of deterioration. In situations where the adoption was arranged privately, it is less likely that background information exists. However, in some instances, documents that were necessary for the court to make an adoption order may have survived. The intermediary agency you are using will be able to advise you about this.
What other information may exist?
When an adoption order has been made it is recorded on the Adopted Children’s Register. The Registrar General also keeps a confidential register, not available to the public, that provides the link between the birth details and the adoption details for every adopted person. Only adoption agencies including regional RAAs, local authorities, voluntary adoption agencies and adoption support agencies that are registered to provide intermediary services can access this information. The intermediary agency may also be advised which court made the adoption order so an enquiry about where the adoption records are held can be made there too.
Who/what is the Registrar General?
A Crown-appointed statutory officer who administers, through the General Register Office, the Registration services relating to all births (including adoptions), marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in England and Wales.
What if I am having difficulty finding the agency that placed my child?
This could be because the adoption agency has closed. Particularly during the 1970s, a lot of the voluntary agencies that previously played a major part in arranging adoptions ceased to exist, or changed direction and took on different types of work. However, if the agency closed, then by law they had to make arrangements for the safe keeping of their adoption records. Often, they would be passed to the local authority in their area or on to another voluntary adoption agency.
When a voluntary adoption agency continues to exist but no longer actively provides an adoption service, it is more than likely that they would have retained responsibilities for their records and have kept them in their archive. Sometimes it is difficult to find the agency because they have changed their name. For example, in the case of local authorities, this may have happened when boundaries were redrawn, and large counties or cities were split into smaller administrative areas. Voluntary adoption agencies may also have had different names over the years.
Coram BAAF’s Adoption Search and Reunion website provides a locating record data base This searchable data base provides a full listing of adoption agencies and where adoption records are currently held with additional information about mother and baby homes.
If you are unsure where to start your enquiries, asking advice from an adoption support agency or the adoption service of the local authority in which you live could be a useful first step.
What happens if the adoption was arranged privately?
Sometimes adoptions were made by private arrangement, for example by the local GP or vicar, and in these situations, there will not be records held by an adoption agency. However, as explained above, there is always information to enable links to be made from the person’s birth name to their adoptive name. This information is kept at the General Register Office. Furthermore, there are a number of agencies which can assist you with your enquiries, in particular, adoption support agencies.
What happens if I live abroad?
If you live abroad this should not deter you from making an enquiry. Agencies can liaise with each other, although it may be a more complex process, for instance, to establish your identity if you cannot meet in person with a worker in England or Wales. Again, if you know the agency that arranged the adoption then contact them and they should be able to suggest ways in which they can assist in providing you with the advice and information you need. Alternatively, an adoption support agency should be in a position to give general guidance. Although sometimes things are more complicated because of language or distance, it can also be because the legislation is different to England and Wales, as it is Scotland and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
What if my child was brought to the UK for adoption?
Specialist agencies exist, such as the Intercountry Adoption Centre (now known as Coram IAC), and they can provide information and advise you about what help can be offered if your child was brought to England or Wales for adoption. Immigration and adoption law requirements will need to be complied with, so records should exist.
