Non-identifying information has long been available for anyone who was adopted. This will not change, even if there is a disclosure veto in place. In fact, if there is veto registered, the person registering the veto should have updated the social and medical information so you should be able to get that information in non-identifying form, in addition to historical information without names, addresses or identifying details.
If you are an adult looking for non-identifying information about your own history, you should contact the Children’s Aid Society where your adoption took place. You will be able to obtain the information that was available at the time of your adoption. If your adoption was a Private adoption, you would apply directly to the Ministry for your non-identifying adoption information. The non identifying information includes everything that your birth family shared with the agency or the adoption worker, to be passed on to you. It should give information about how old your birth parents were when you were born, a physical description; and information about their personality, interests, education, type of work and about their relationship. It should give information about why you were placed for adoption. It would tell you if you have any siblings older than yourself and would list younger siblings if they were born before your adoption was finalized. It would usually give some information about your parents, grandparents, and extended family and provide the medical information that was known at the time.
Many people find that it is most helpful to receive the information summarized into one document rather than redacted (photocopied) bits of information because the information is more cohesive and in context for the reader.
In the past 20 to 30 years, most people received all of the non-identifying information that was available at the time of placement. Some people may have lost their information and some people were not given the information by their adoptive families. It is still available. Even if your adoption took place 50 or 75 or more years ago, you can still contact the Society where your adoption took place and they will be happy to share it with you. You will be asked to provide identification to ensure that your information is only released to you.
What if I am looking for information about someone else?
Maybe you are looking for information about your sibling, your deceased parent, or about the adoptive family who adopted your child. The same process is in place. You would make a request to the Agency where the Adoption took place. You, as an adult, would need to provide identification to demonstrate your connection. Once again, Non identifying information would be shared as appropriate.
H.
If you are an adult looking for non-identifying information about your own history, you should contact the Children’s Aid Society where your adoption took place. You will be able to obtain the information that was available at the time of your adoption. If your adoption was a Private adoption, you would apply directly to the Ministry for your non-identifying adoption information. The non identifying information includes everything that your birth family shared with the agency or the adoption worker, to be passed on to you. It should give information about how old your birth parents were when you were born, a physical description; and information about their personality, interests, education, type of work and about their relationship. It should give information about why you were placed for adoption. It would tell you if you have any siblings older than yourself and would list younger siblings if they were born before your adoption was finalized. It would usually give some information about your parents, grandparents, and extended family and provide the medical information that was known at the time.
Many people find that it is most helpful to receive the information summarized into one document rather than redacted (photocopied) bits of information because the information is more cohesive and in context for the reader.
In the past 20 to 30 years, most people received all of the non-identifying information that was available at the time of placement. Some people may have lost their information and some people were not given the information by their adoptive families. It is still available. Even if your adoption took place 50 or 75 or more years ago, you can still contact the Society where your adoption took place and they will be happy to share it with you. You will be asked to provide identification to ensure that your information is only released to you.
What if I am looking for information about someone else?
Maybe you are looking for information about your sibling, your deceased parent, or about the adoptive family who adopted your child. The same process is in place. You would make a request to the Agency where the Adoption took place. You, as an adult, would need to provide identification to demonstrate your connection. Once again, Non identifying information would be shared as appropriate.
H.
3 comments:
I find your assertion that, "In the past 20 to 30 years, most people received all of the non-identifying information that was available at the time of placement" hard to believe. I'd love to know how you reached this conclusion.
How on earth can you prove this?
I have some non-identifying information, but how, short of looking at the agency's file, would I ever know that I had all of the information that was available at the time of placement?
Leaving aside whether or not any person's non-id is complete or correct (and there are many examples to the contrary), you're also asserting that the service of getting non-id info is still present.
The true answer is that it depends on the CAS where the adoption took place. There are varying waiting lists. There are varying levels of service. I have heard that there is at least one CAS in the province that has nobody to do the non-id research work.
You are correct in saying that the the non identifying information that people receive varies widely. It depends on what information was provided by the birth parents. It also depends on whether the worker who met the birth parents documented the information throughly. There is a province wide expectation that a through non identifying social and medical history be prepared for every adopted person at the time of or soon after placment. Some agencies may be more diligent than others about making sure this happens.
Non identifying information is still available and is important. There is sometimes a long wait for the information since not every agency has a specific disclosure worker and the duties fall to already busy adoption workers.
We adopted our children 25 to 30 years ago and in each case received verbal and written non identifying information which we trust to have been a good overview of all of the things that were important. We were able to get a good sense of the personality and talents of the birth parents and also of their struggle with loving their children, recognizing that they were not able to care for the children and wanting a better life for them. I do believe that this was the best practice at that time as it still is. Interesting details that are shared are so important!
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