I want to know what nationality I am. I need advice.?

Question:When I was 8 years old I was adopted. I've never seen my original birth certificate, but I know my last name was Stock. Is there anyway that I can find out more about my biological parent's? I would also like to figure out what nationality I am, time of birth, and birth place. Anybody have any advice?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: When I was 8 years old I was adopted. I've never seen my original birth certificate, but I know my last name was Stock. Is there anyway that I can find out more about my biological parent's? I would also like to figure out what nationality I am, time of birth, and birth place. Anybody have any advice?

First: Have you tried getting your original birth certificate on your own (if you're over 18) or from your adoptive parents yet, or have you tried registering with a reunion registry/adoptees search service yet? Will anyone in the family discuss this issue with you?

For example, where I used to live, in the state of PA, they have info on how to get birth certificates and at the same site, they have an adoption registry for parents and kids to find one another after adoptions, here:

http://www.dsf.health.state.pa.us/health...

Find the website just like this for your state in the US and start there.

Some other good sites to start with as you begin your search to find your birth parents are:

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/adoption/a...

http://www.isrr.net/about_isrr.shtml

http://www.genealogicaljourneys.com/miss...

You could try these things, too: ask your adoptive parents, siblings and/or aunts and uncles about your adoption and about your origins and that of your birth parents.

Ask a close and trusted friend of the family, such as a priest or minister, school guidance counselor, family doctor, etc to help, if your immediate family will not.

If no one will help you, consider this: many adoptees receive benefits from the state for their upbringing and care for a period of time.

These benefits are administered thru the social security administration under a program called SSDI (if they come from a disability the child has or from a deceased birth parent's social security credits) and sometimes they come thru the department of health and welfare locally (if the child was in foster care first, before being adopted). These paid benefits usually cease at age 18. They are usually paid to the adoptive parents, rather than directly to the child.

You might learn something by asking a caseworker or social security employee assigned to handle these payments for you, or by looking at old paperwork that records them, if you can find them.

Try to find out if they changed your social security number or if they just didn't get one assigned for you until much later. Laws about when a number should be assigned, and whether or not it should be changed in cases like adoption, have changed considerably over the last thirty years.

So it depends on how old you are now and when the adoption took place, as to what advice someone can give you on that.

Legal aid lawyers might be able to recommend the best approach for this whole search process, when you reach the end of the road, and they are usually low cost or free. Legal Aid offices exist in every state, just google them online. Prepaid legal services available thru your employer, as an employment benefit, might be helpful, too, if you can afford their small fees.

Now, Part 2.

About nationality being determined from your original name, Stock, this is going to be a long answer, because it needs to be.

The name Stock could be many things (German, Scottish, Welsh, etc) and you'd be guessing at nationality and origins if you only know that one name.

If both of your birth parents were born in the US and you were too, you're going to be guessing based on the name only, rather than using a foreign country where one of you was born.

You need to know if the name was shortened from something else, or is complete as is. If it was shortened, you need that longer, full name to even begin to tell origins or nationality from it. Maybe the original name was Stockey or Stockton or Stauch, Staught, Stack, etc.

Even when you know both parents' names, you still have a little problem, because you won't always know THEIR parent's names.

EXAMPLE:
Your mother's maiden name is Stock. You believe that name is Scottish. But your mother's mother's (your grandmother's) maiden name was De Gaetano, which is Italian. And HER mother's (your great grandmother's) maiden name was Eisenmann. Are you Scottish? Or are you Scots, Italian, German? And what was your dad's last name? Is it German, too? Or something totally unknown to you, like Filipino?

Example 2: Your mother's maiden name is Stock. She was unmarried when she had you and did not list the fathers name on the birth certificate, or her parent's names. After years of research, you find out from a newly discovered cousin that the name is German, and was changed from Stauch 100 years ago. You know nothing about your father, his family, your mother's family, etc. Are you German? Or something else entirely, from your mom's and dad's sides put together?

You have the right to know about yourself and where you came from, no matter what anyone says. Just be ready for what you may find out, good or bad.

Good luck to you!

Perhaps you could go back to the agency and inquire them about your past biodata? If you're of age, I'm sure they'll let you see your files. Or why not ask your foster parents? Just tell them that you would really like to get to know your real parents.

Have you talked with your adoptive parents? Go to the register of deeds to see if you can locate your original birth certificate.