Your original birth certificate may be at the office of vital records in Nashville, but it sounds like your adoption took place in CA and that would probably be the court of jurisdiction.

Tennessee laws now have Open Adoption Records which means an adoptee or member of a biological family can request identifying information from the Tennessee Post Adoption Services, and obtain copies of all information in an adoption record, but I am unsure that your adoption was in Tennessee. Do you have your original name or name of your biological family?

If your adoption was in CA, a CA attorney would be required to petition a court there. I don't know a CA attorney that would be familiar with the TCHS adoptions, but as you already know you are one of many who were taken by the TCHS and sent to CA for adoption. In 1950 The TCHS was under investigation for being a Black Market Baby Selling Racket but Georgia Tann died of cancer before the investigation was complete. A Memphis attorney named Robert Taylor was asked by the Governor to look into the scandal. I don't know why an attorney was the investigator and not the TBI or FBI. Unfortunately there are many horror stories.

Also many babies were sent to New York.

There is a Nashville attorney named Bob Tuke who handles TN adoptions but I don't know if he could help you or not.

It is possible that your biological family had their parental rights terminated in TN. and there may be a record of that in TN. Many of the TCHS records were filed (hidden) in Dyer County, (Dyersburg), not Shelby County (Memphis). Many of the records contained false information.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Norma Tillman