I'm adopted
If you have been adopted and are currently living in Hampshire, Hampshire’s Adoption Support Team can provide you with advice and support on how to access your records and how to seek information about your birth relatives.
If you have been adopted and do not currently live in Hampshire, please make enquiries with the local authority adoption service where you live.
Isle of Wight Council - Children's Services - 01983 823434
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Accessing birth records
If you were adopted before 12 November 1975
Please contact the adoption support team who will talk through the process with you.
If you were adopted after 12 November 1975
You can apply direct to the local authority where you live to access your adoption records. If you live in Hampshire please contact Hampshire’s adoption support service to access these services.
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Birth records counselling
If, as an adopted adult, you do not have a copy of the birth certificate completed when you were born, please contact the Adoption Support Services Team who will talk through the process with you. If you were adopted before 12 November 1975 and you do not know your birth name, under current legislation, you are likely to need to undertake a Birth Records Counselling session with a Social Worker. If you were adopted after 12 November 1975 you can still elect to have this session, although generally you would be sent the certificate directly, as you will need to apply to the General Register Office GRO for Birth Information Before Adoption. The GRO will then send this to the Adoption Support Services Team in Hampshire and once your case in allocated, the Team will arrange to share this with you and discuss the way forward.
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The Adoption Contact Register
The Adoption Contact Register is designed to put adopted people and their birth relatives in touch with each other if that is what they both want. It does not contain the details of everyone who was adopted or is looking for their adopted family member as it a voluntary register.
To join the Adoption Contact Register, you need to apply to the General Register Office.
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Intermediary services
It is natural for those who have been adopted to want to know more about their birth relatives. When the team receives an enquiry from an adopted person, they check Hampshire’s records for information, or write to the appropriate adoption agency, to find out if there are records for the adopted person. At the same time, the team check to see if birth relatives have made an enquiry of their own or have left a veto. A veto is the right not to be traced.
