[nj] Adult Adoptee Looking For Information Regarding My Cuban Biological Mother, Wondering How I Can Go About Obtaining Records

Location: [NJ]

This is a bit tricky so I apologize in advance. My paternal aunt adopted me in New Jersey when I was a very young child. I’m adult now and have been living in Virginia for most of my life.

My biological parents were both dealing with a lot of drug issues when I was a baby so my aunt and uncle started watching my brother and I, and eventually ended up adopting us both because our parents couldn’t get better. My biological mother died when I was 7 so I didn’t have much of a relationship with her; I vaguely knew my biological father before he passed three years ago, so I couldn’t get much information out of him. The rest of my family absolutely hated both of my parents, so my brother and I were kept in the dark and lied to for the last 24 years. I already know a bit about my father but other than my biological mother’s funeral service card, it’s as if she wasn’t real. I haven’t been able to find any public records at all about her and there’s only three photos in existence of her – the rest were thrown away or lost in an old storage unit when my father was in prison. Because I am adopted, her information isn’t even on my birth certificate. All I know is her full name, birthday, and that she was born in Havana.

So the issue is... how do I go about obtaining any records or information on my biological mother? I tried to request her death certificate through VitalChek, however, I could not without her parents full names and birth information. I have no clue who my maternal grandparents are because they never even left Cuba and my mother is not alive to tell me about them. I had the same issue with marriage certificate. I also cannot order a copy of her birth certificate since she was not born in the U.S. and I have no clue how to access something that old from Cuba without going in person, which is obviously out of the question. As for any other records that the state may have on her, such as social service records, I have no clue if New Jersey even keeps records those records and how I would get them – I don’t even know what hospital I was born in or which social services I went through – I know the minimum: I was born and adopted in Newark.

Any suggestions or advice with how I should proceed?