Joan Renne wrote in a message to All:
JR> I'm delighted to add my BBS to this conference.
First of all, please allow me to say that we are delighted to have you and 
your BBS users become a part of this echo's participants!
JR> I have a best friend who was adopted in Nebraska but she knows very
JR> little, and has almost nothing to go on to find her bparents.
We were all in that position at one time.  And I am including myself in that 
group because I too am an adoptee and before I started my search, I didn't 
know very much.
JR> The birth certificate she has was issued in Lincoln, NE and shows
JR> only her adoptive parents name.
That would mean that she has her "ammended" birth certificate.  That's what I 
started out with.
JR> Neither her father or mother gave her any information regarding
JR> her adoption.  They have both passed away... She does not know where
JR> she was adopted.
Did they ever tell her if her adoption was handled through an adoption agency 
and hopefully what the name of that agency was and where it was located?
Or did they tell her that her adoption was handled through a lawyer's office 
and again hopefully the name of the lawyer's office and where it was located?
Did they tell her where she was born?  (City and State or name of the 
hospital)
When they passed away, were there any legal papers from the time period when 
she was born?  Her parents might (or might not) have gotten copies of some of 
the adoption paperwork like perhaps the Final Decree of Adoption which is the 
paper that would have made her her parents' child and would have also 
possibly been where her name was legally changed to their name from her birth 
name.
Do any of her parents' relatives remember anything about the adoption? 
Possibly her mother's parents or sisters...  I'm "reaching" (or 
brainstorming) here, but it's a start.  Did she ever hear anyone in her 
family talking about her adoption - that is if they knew she was adopted...  
Perhaps someone in her relation (aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.) might remember 
some details about her adoption.
When was she born?
If we can identify who handled the adoption, then we can stear her toward 
requesting her "non-identifying" information.  That would at least give her 
some information about her medical history (if much was collected at the 
time), and some info about her parents' physical features, etc.  It will not 
have their names and addresses on it.
Michael Kirst
f/k/a Christopher Lee Backus
Sysop of The Noble House BBS
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