The adoption made her his real daughter, not a step-daughter, and I live in Virginia which does have some mighty strange laws, but I didn't know about this one <smile>. I personally worked with many adoptions (law firms, Maryland and DC) and in all cases the natural (biological) parent in the marriage consented to the adoption by the adopting parent. In some cases if the child was over a certain age, the Judge also asked for the child's consent, often impressing upon the child that he or she also was accepting the responsibility of a parent and the future risks of caring for that aging or ailing parent. In all cases the original birth certificate reflecting the biological parents was removed from state records and the "correct" birth certificate reflecting the parents of the child (after adoption) was placed in the records. This is slightly off subject for the PAF list, but it might help some who are still researching and have come up with official records information that may differ from family lore. Elaine Cemetery: (n) A marble orchard not to be taken for granite. Hello Charlotte On Monday, June 6, 2005, you wrote > Dick, > I am afraid you are misinformed. In 1968 I > was required by the state of > Virginia to adopt my own biological child > when my husband adopted her as > a stepdaughter. It was explained to me that > this was a "mere legal > formality to make both of us parties to the > adoption", and we were > required to have home visits by a social > worker to insure the home was a > proper home for her. > Charlotte