Sources of information on adoption and children who were put into care

In earlier times, many children were adopted or put into foster homes. Here are some potential sources of information.

Sources of information on adoptive children

Generally speaking, legislation in cases of legal adoption is quite strict. The adopted person may apply to the County Governor for information about his/her birth parents. It’s customary in Norway that only the adopted person himself/herself may apply for access to the adoption documents, not his descendants nor his parents. General access to the case documents is restricted for 100 years. 

Who is recorded as being the parents in public registers in cases of adoption?

When the child has been legally adopted, the adoptive parents, and not the biological parents, are to be recorded on birth certificates, in parish marriage registers etc. But if the child had not been adopted by the time it was christened, the biological parents would be recorded in the parish christening register, but annotations might have been made in the margin. This is the main reason that access to many parish records is restricted for 100 years.