A lady of my aquaintance was born in 1981 in New York City and put up for adoption. She is now searching for her birth family. Her original last name was Ozkalfayan, Armenian in origin, and her birthmother was from Istanbul, Turkey but had moved to NYC about 10 years before my friend was born.
She doesn’t have much more info – a sister of her birthmom also lived in the USA, her biological grandfather had his own business designing water pumps – so the surname is her best guide. What I’d like to know is if its possible to get a 1981 NYC phone book and look up the name Ozkalfayan. Even in a diverse city like NYC there couldn’t possibly have been very many Ozkalfayans, and even just some names would give her leads. Any ideas?
Well, there’s census data. 1980, New York and New Jersey. Definitely worth a try.
Check county records for death certificates also. After some googling, I have some info that says she was adopted at the age of four, from a hospital. Perhaps her mother died, and that’s why she was adopted?
The New York Public Library has a vast collection of phone books going back quite a while. It would help if you knew which borough the woman lived in, since there are something like eight phone books for all of New York City.
Individual census data can’t be released until 72 years after the census was taken. Cite. I remember it was a big thing a couple years ago to genealogists to have the 1930 census open to the public.
Unless they make an exception for adoptees seeking birth parents.
The U.S. Census Bureau will release transcripts from the 1940-2000 censuses, under certain circumstances. The cost is $40.
However, you must know the street address of the individual or family at the time of the census. Therefore, you should get the person’s address first from the 1979-1981 NYC telephone directories at the New York Public Library, then request the census transcript.
All I can tell you is that no Ozkalfayans with a social security number died in America. And that Ozkalfayan must be an extremely rare name, as the only google references I found on it referred to your case and some person named Elda in Canada. My only question is, are we sure of the spelling of the last name? Are there any Armenians around here who could verify this name?