The Adoption Law Firm

Searching for Birth Parents

If you are 18 or older, you may try the following:

• Adoption records are sealed by Utah courts. You may petition the courts to grant access pursuant to U.C.A. Section 78B-6-141 (2)(c) if you can show “good cause” to the Court.
  • ​78B-6-141  Petition, report, and documents sealed — Exceptions.
    (1)  A petition for adoption, the written report described in Section 78B-6-135, and any other documents filed in connection with the petition are sealed.
    (2)  The documents described in Subsection (1) may only be open to inspection as follows:
    (a)  in accordance with Subsection (3)(a), by a party to the adoption proceeding:
    (i)  while the proceeding is pending; or
    (ii)  within six months after the day on which the adoption decree is entered;
    (b)  subject to Subsection (3)(b), a court enters an order permitting access to the documents by a person who has appealed the denial of that person’s motion to intervene;
        (c)  upon order of the court expressly permitting inspection or copying, after good cause has been shown;
    (d)  as provided under Section 78B-6-144;
    (e)  those records shall become public on the one hundredth anniversary of the date the final decree of adoption was entered; or
    (f)  if the adoptee is an adult at the time the final decree of adoption is entered, the documents described in this section are open to inspection and copying without a court order by the adoptee or a parent who adopted the adoptee, unless the final decree of adoption is entered by the juvenile court under Subsection 78B-6-115(3)(b).
• If you were adopted through an adoption agency, you may request your non-identifying information about your birth family. You can ask the agency if they can provide you with any non-identifying information they can legally release.  Several adoption agencies have services to accommodate such requests.
• If you were born in Utah, there is a Mutual Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry that was set up to help adult adoptees and birth families find each other if both parties so desire. To get more information or register with the Mutual Consent Voluntary Adoption Registry, call (801) 538-6363 or write the Bureau of Vital Records, 288 North 1460 West, P.O. Box 141012, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-1012.  They will send you a registration form.  The cost is $25.
• If you were not born in Utah, contact the Health Department Bureau of Vital Records in the state in which you were born to ask about mutual exchange adoption registries or open adoption records.  The International Soudex Reunion Registry in Carson City, Nevada has helped many people who are searching for their adopted (adult) children or adoptees searching for birth families. They are a nonprofit organization. Their website is http://www.isrr.net/ and their phone number is (775) 882-7755.