Short question: Is there anything to identify an adoption birth certificate as such?
Joseph Kearns was known to a generation of a certain age as the cranky “Mr. Wilson” in the old “Dennis the Mennace” TV series. He died pretty suddenly at age 55 in 1962. He had one sister Elizabeth Kearns Deyo [1909-1983].
The findagrave entry (which is user submitted) indicates that Joseph’s obit says that Elizabeth was adopted, but the birth certificate shows that she had the same biological parents as Joseph. In my own limited experience, I know my wife’s birth cert shows her adoptive parents as her parents, but not having seen it personally, I don’t know if there’s anything to show that it was amended or not an original. Elizabeth’s findagrave entry shows her birth cert. for reference.
I assume because in the Goode Olde Days, adoption records were sealed ten ways from Sunday and very private, and back then there were even people who never told thier child they were adopted - I would be surprised if “adopted” was explicit on a document like that. Are things different today?
(also because often social pressure, teen pregnancy and no abortion meant some adoptees came from families that were reluctant to admit their daughter’s situation, so wanted serious privacy - which the law was designed to protect)
I’ve never seen a birth certificate that says anything about adoption. I have seen certificates that say Amended on them, but never what has been amended (and the amendment could be anything from correcting a spelling error to changing the parent’s name to somebody else).
(Back in the day, it was not unusual for the place of birth to be amended, to make an adopted child be born in the city where the adoptive parents lived. I have heard reports that the date might be adjusted slightly as well, although I’ve not seen evidence of that.)