Genealogy Chat

Does every birth certificate have a diagonal line at the end of the columns? Would it say 'Adopted' above the diagonal line or does every certificate have a diagonal line on it? Thanks Claire

All the birth, marriage and death certs I have have diagonal lines. Someone with experience of adoption can probably answer your question. nell

A birth certificate may have 'Adopted' written on it, or it may not. Mine has no indication at all to show I was subsequently adopted. Liz

Yes, they all have a diagonal line at the end (no idea why!), but an adopted person's will say 'adopted' and signed by a registrar. Mandy

Ah, you could well be right there Liz! I've just looked at my older sister's because it was nearer to hand than my own, and hers has 'adopted' written at the end, but she was actually adopted by her stepfather when she was about 5 years old. I'll just trot along and check mine out lol! Mandy

Just checked mine, and it does in fact have 'adopted' at the end, along with the name of the registrar. Maybe it's because this is a 2002 copy of a 1964 entry, and not my original birth certificate (which presumably my birth mother had)? Mandy

I just dashed upstairs to double check mine, but the darn thing isn't where I thought it would be - in a big envelope crammed with assorted other documents relating to my adoption. I am sure it doesn't say adopted on it though. Liz

Thanks everyone. It definitely does not say adopted above the diagonal line, but I wonder if a private arrangement was entered into as he was not brought up by the birth mother? We are just wondering what happened to him. My mother was also adopted and it says adopted on her birth certificate dating back to 1935. Thanks for all your help and replies. Claire

Hi If you have a short version of the cert, it may not say adopted. The only give away with mine if the fact that it said that it was a copy taken from the General Registrars Office, London, where am my husband had a short version of his and his was taken from the local registrars book. Its only now that I realise that this is because the adoption register is held in London and so mine had to be taken from that. Hope this helps. Sheila

Gosh Dorothy, fancy finding out a thing like that at 62 ! How did you react? As far as I know I'm not adopted but I think (?!) that now, at 41, it wouldn't make any difference. But, hey, what a thing to handle!

We were issued with the short version for our son when we adopted him, and that doesn't say adopted. We also were issued with the full adoption certificate that has birth mothers name and ours. Social Services gave us his original birth certificate, shouldn't have done but we needed it to get him on our passport before the adoption went through, strange how that worked, passport form with his new first & surnames on, birth cert to prove who he was with completely different names on plus letter from Social Services confirming both names and asking letter to be destroyed as soon as it was read to protect his identity. [he was at risk of being snatched] Anycase we kept the original certificate. Don't know what happens now, as 5 years ago my friend adopted a boy and wasn't sent a short certificate, and when she asked for one was told she couldn't have one, only the adoption certificate.

Out of interest, the diagonal line drawn after the last column on a cert simply means that there have been no corrections to the original entry. If there have been corrections, these are noted in place of the line. Richard

Hi Claire In most cases if a child was adopted it will be shown on the original birth certificate. However, it's not always 100% and some have slipped through the system. Hi Liz I would imagine any original birth certificates can only be amended after the adoption order was granted in the court. Is there any possibility that certificate you hold was issued before your adoption order was granted? I belong to another website where there is an adoption law expert posts and this subject has come up in the past and he says it's usually the case but not always that the obc has been marked 'adopted' on the end column. In England and Wales the time frame was 19 weeks (6 weeks for the natural mother to sign and the a/parents had to have to child 13 consecutive weeks before an adoption order could be granted) Hi Dorothy :-) Scotland have different laws... I understand the time frame there was much quicker. I'm not up with Scottish Law as I'm only just getting the hang of the England and Wales ones. But I do know the Scots are eagerly waiting for a change of law so natural families can search for their family members. Cheers Gerry

Hi Geraldine, My adoption was finalised in 1966, and I applied for my original birth cert in 2002. It looked like a photocopy of the original, but it is difficult to tell. I wish I could put my hands on it now... Liz

I recently ordered a birth cert for a friend who was adopted by her step father in the early 60s. The cert says 'adopted' on the far right hand side of the cert. (no diagonal line) My friend also as another copy of her cert which i pressume was prior to adoption as this does'nt have adopted written on it but rather the diagonal line mentioned above, so in this case the entry was deffo amended accordingly... Lib :))

Hi Everyone, My full original birth certificate is like the others it has a line and adopted on it. There is something else I noticed when looking up my birth on 1837 was that there was the letter S next to the index and page no. It might be something or it might not, worth a try though. Melisa

Once an adoption has taken place, the words 'adopted' are added to the 'original' b/c entry and not to the copy that is given out at the time the birth was registered. If you later 're-order' a 'copy' of your FULL birth certificate and you were adopted, it should show 'Adopted' to the right hand column and initialed by the Superintendent/registrar. Short birth certificates were quite poplar for reasons others have given. The words 'Adopted' were not added to these (not that I know of as) these were given out at the time of the birth registration and if requested, although a full version could have been given if requested. I always had a 'short' version and my Mum always said she couldn't afford the 'Full' version at the time I was born. It was only later when I ordered a full version, I discovered that my Mum & Dad were not actually married when they had me and they must have thought I'd be sooo ashamed and hence, they made sure I only ever saw the short version!! Shirley-ann

The birth certificates of myself and my 'missing' sister state in the last line in small wording 'adopted'. This was in 1946. Of course I was issued with the usual small birth certificate and nothing to indicate whether adopted.

Hi, My half - brothers BC has 'Adopted' with the registrar's signature alongside, written on the left hand side of the form from bottom to top. Cheers Paul

My hubby applied for his birth cert in 1995 he was adopted in 1964, it does say at the far right hand side in a box that is hand written 'Adopted' He also has the original ' certified entry in the adopted childrens register. He was told that when his parents adopted him that his original birth cert was destroyed and replaced with the adopted one, this is why he applied for a copy that has adopted wrote on it. Joanne