As for obtaining adoption info, it took me years of red tape and writing, 1960-1967, to get my Mother's adoption information. She was born 1914,in Detroit, to a bigamist father and then adopted by a step-father in Macomb County MI in 1923. My grandmother, who was still an alien, was promptly divorced by him when she refused to try to adopt or even care for her new three young step-children, twin girls aged 10 & a boy age 5. After that marriage ended, my mother simply began using her own mother's maiden name and a year later used the surname of her next-father. All in all, my mother had used nine surnames in her lifetime. I do have in my possession now, both her original and the amended birth certificate after her adoption. Since state laws are all different and have changed thru the years, it really makes research difficult, sometimes impossible in the area of adoption. I try to research both the biological & adoptive lines. Often they ended up being related in someway. Nancy M. Meyers, Lorain OH OGS Life Member http://www.ogs.org/ Genealogy Volunteer http://home.centurytel.net/lorgen/ RAOGK Volunteer http://www.raogk.org/