I'm getting somewhere when it comes to searching my father's heritage. He has his birth certificate that lists his adopted parents as his parents. His adopted parents are no longer with us but would not have been cooperative anyway. We don't know anything else for sure. We are not even possitive that he is Choctaw. We have lots of speculation: white mom, choctaw father, at least one brother, possible through the catholic church but we don't have anything as a fact. All we have is the altered birth certificate. I contacted Omni search. They told me I have more info than most. They think this is an easy case. They said his birth certificate leads them straight to the original birth certificate. The hard part-the part they specialize in- is finding the birth mother, getting all info on her from dentist visits to marriages. They said it could take up to 8 months and since it is such a simple case that it will only cost $700. I said I couldn't afford that. They said I can pay $233 now, $233 in 60 days and $233 60 days after that but I had to put it on a credit card to insure payment. I have to sign and notarize and so does my father and then we return paperwork and they get started. The good thing about all this is that no one will know we are looking for them and when we are finished, they never even have to be contacted. If we choose to contact, we can or the company can. The down side is that fathers can be hard to find since they do not have to sign anything. So, we never actually prove his heritage, but we will find his family. I hope this info helped someone. Christy

Christy, I would say if the birth certificate leads them straight to the birth mother, it should you also. I am not positive but under The Indian Welfare Act your father may have some legal rights also, at least it would be worth a try to contact them. I did find this one link http://www.ptla.org/wabanaki/icwa.htm it might be of some help. Judy