Kentucky Adoption Records Resources
Kentucky’s Birth Index Books were created by law in 1911. The books were never intended to be a resource for adoption information but in today’s world, they have. Even if a child was going to be an adoptee their original birth information was recorded in the index. All births and deaths for the year were sent to the Capitol of Frankfort, Kentucky. The Kentucky Birth Index Books were printed and released to the local county health departments. Unfortunately as time went on the capital of Kentucky people realized that they were finding this adoption resource a good tool for an adoptee to find family. It’s no wonder either because valuable information is included within the many volumes. The adoptee birth certificate number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, county, gender, and if it was a single birth are all recorded.
The index books were discontinued during the 1980s, but the information was put onto microfiche. As far as being a helpful resource for adoption investigations it’s not. If you’re going to use the microfiche expect to find your information has been altered from the birth index book. You’ll find one of two possibilities. Either your name has been overlooked and left out, or your new amended information now on the microfiche is incorrectly listed. In other words all of your amended adoption information will be in place of the original. I personally know this from experience.
The cds that are offered for sale by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives out of Frankfort, Kentucky are far worse a choice as an adoption resource. The information was taken from the microfiche, and if there were any lingering adoption resources information left after the first “cleansing”, it wasn’t included on the cd.
Several places still have copies of the indexes even after the legislature asked the books to be shredded or returned. It was not a state law that was passed ordering the books to be shredded but only a request to do so. Some kind souls found the strength in their hearts to say no, so there are a few important copies left in certain university libraries and genealogical societies. Most of the books are in good shape and a useful adoption information tool. Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky has a set. Further west in Hopkins County and in the city of Owensboro the public libraries have them too.
Remember as an adoptee you’ve got to use the most reliable resources on adoption that you can find. It’s good to use the other adoption information off of the microfiche and cd as verification on amended information, but the key is the hardbound index book. You should be forewarned though; the index books in 1969 didn’t include the original birth information. By 1968 the legislature had already caught on about the use of the books for research by adopted to find their family, but that’s another story for another day.
