Do you possess a birth certificate that contains the name of the hospital in which you were born or at least has a space into which that name could have been inserted?

If not, you might possess a short-form transcript of your birth certificate or a birth card (wallet-size). What you want is the long-form version called "full copy birth certificate."

In many states, the true name of the hospital and the certificate numbers from the original birth certificate are copied onto the amended birth certificate. The latter contains the names of the adoptive parents.

If information on the birth parents is lacking, some adoptees contact the hospital to ask for the medical records of their birth---frequently destroyed years ago.

Little is known about admission records and financial records that hospitals have. If the hospital was owned by the United States government, one wonders if the Privacy Act of 1974 can be invoked to demand medical records from the hospital.

My own feeling is that in the health-conscious environment of today, hospitals would be willing to provide copies of whatever they have, without a request from one's current physician.

When a baby is adopted by strangers, her first name is usually changed. Retention of first name might imply an older child or an adoption by a stepparent.

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Reg Niles