For starters, no matter who you are, you will more than likely be working without an original birth certificate, unless the adoptee got it when PA records were open for a while.  Currently, it is highly unlikely you will get one. The records are closed to adoptees wanting their original birth certificates, but it never hurts to try.

Birthparents cannot find out their "child's" name after adoption either from the birth certificate as they are not entitled to one, having given up rights to the child. The adoptee gets an amended birth certificate listing only the adoptive parents, and uses his or her adopted name. Birthparents will get nothing if they request the birth certificate post-adoption because, having relinquished parental rights they are advised they have no further interest in the birth. Depending on the birthmother or anyone who may have influenced the process, the birthfather's name may or may not be present on the original birth certificate. Sometimes for financial aid or to avoid a paternity dispute, it was deemed best to not name the birthfather. 

If you are an adoptee, ask for your birth certificate anyhow -- mistakes happen. Get whatever info you can from elsewhere and you may be able to make some assumptions, you might get lucky when you get non-id with some critical tidbit, you might get someone who blurts something that will help you build a foundation for your search.  The tips below should help you do this.

1. Organize yourself. Get files and notebooks, keep a sheet accumulating the info you have learned, and a log showing what you did, when, and the results. Not only will this keep you organized, it will show you where you are and have been which comes in handy during those down times. It also gives you an area in which to brainstorm.
   
   Under a tab heading in your binder, make a place for all the documents you have accumulated in your search. This should include copies of (always place originals in a safe place) your birth certificate, final adoption decree, non-identifying information....anything else you can find. If you are a birthparent, this might include a copy of the original birth certificate, relinquishment (if you have it), your maternity records, anything else pertaining to the birth or adoption. When you are ready to register at different sites, you will have the information at hand and will not have to hunt for it. Also, you now have an idea of what you have and as you gain more information, you can update with new information.

   Today, with the use of computers and internet, there is very little paperwork to keep track of, however, you need to keep track of what sites you find, their URL (address), what you did there and what you can expect from them.
   
   Since you are on computer, you no doubt have access to email. It is important to have a tab title for e-mail you would like to save, or a chart to organize e-mail addresses. Always remember, just because the computer is stationary, your files are not. Occasionally your hard drive will fritz, the delete key will eat your mail, you can often misplace an item, or gremlins will do unspeakable things to your correspondence. It is always good to have a written log of who you have written and their address.
   
   Make another tab title for search sites you visit that you can use for information. Remember bookmarks can fail. Just put the URL site address and a description of the site for future reference.
    

2. Make a Registry Chart on a plain piece of paper (or a spreadsheet program) make the following title headers:
   Date
   Registry Name
   Address (URL)
   Registered (Yes/No)
   Fee?
   Updated (Weekly/Daily/Monthly)
   User Id
   Password?
   
   Using a registry chart you can keep track of which registries you have visited, if you registered there, the address to get back to it if your bookmarks fail, if you had to pay a fee to register and for how long the registration fee is, and when they update the registry to see any new registrations that may pertain to your search or update your registration.  If you are assigned an user id and password to allow you access to update or search, write it down. Believe me, you will forget!
    

3. Adoptees should pay the required fee and if your birth parents registered with the state Biological Parent Registry.  Birth Parents should make sure they register.  Info on this is available through the PA Department of Health.
   
   PA also has a health registry where birth parents register health information and the adoptee can check to see if the birth parent(s) is registered with updated medical information.  Information regarding this registry is also available through the PA Department of Health.
    
4. Register with the International Soundex Reunion Registry (ISRR).  Information regarding this registry can be found at www.isrr.org.
    
5. Register with the PA Adoption Reunion Registry (PARR).  This is NOT a state run registry but one of the only registry in PA that is available to register on line and those registered are searchable online.  Information pertaining to PARR can be found at www.paadoptionreunionregistry.org
    
6. Adoptees should talk as much as you can to their parents.  They may know more than they would volunteer, but might share with you if you ask.  It is understandable to be scared of hurting them so you may want to explain that your searching has nothing to do with them but everything to do with yourself.  
   
   Also talk to other family members such as aunts, uncles, and cousins to try and get additional information.
    
7. Adoptees please consider the social climate of the time and place you were in at birth.  If the adoption was a private adoption, who may have been the intermediary?  Could a priest have helped your parents?  Are you close to a relative you can ask?  Are your parents friends with someone in a position of influence? Do they have any close friends that are attorneys?  Do your parents have friends with adopted children and they all maybe used the same lawyer, intermediary, or agency?
    

8. If you are an adoptee you should request non id from both the agency/attorney and the court in which the adoption was finalized to increase the odds of what you get.  PA law does not define what is considered non identifying information so each person may give you different info.  In addition, the quality of that information will vary. I encourage live appointments where possible to build rapport and to give that other person a chance to "slip"- on purpose or by accident and give you the info that you need. There may be a very few good souls who will put some info or clue on a table and then have to go to the bathroom, leaving you alone with it. I would also ask point blank for "photocopies of the original records with identifying info deleted, not a summary". The reasons for this are manifold: one -- someone could miss something that should have been whited-out; two --  summaries are just that- short and sweet, retyped by someone in a rush to get it done; three- when stuff is whited out from a typed document you can often figure out how many digits or letters were removed by lining the covered area up visually with the line above it.

   Birthparents can try getting non-id but in many cases they may be told it is not available to them since they gave up an interest in the child. Some agencies and attorneys are open about this some are not.
    

9. Whether you are a birthparent or an adoptee, file waivers of confidentiality. This is to reassure record keepers that if the persons you specify come looking for you, you WANT them to get your identifying info. There are no guarantees, but it may very well help. You want to file these with the agency, attorneys, but especially with the county court in which the adoption was finalized, which is usually the county the adoptive parents lived at the time of the adoption.  If you are a birth parent and do not know what county your child was adopted to, you want to find this out so you file your waiver in the right court. You may be able to get this thru your agency if you just tell them why you need it- to file the waiver. If not, you should be able to ask for it from the Bureau of Vital Statistics. To clarify: where an adoptee was relinquished and where the adoption was finalized are not the same thing necessarily. For example, I was born in  Allegheny County but my adoption was finalized in Westmoreland County, where my adoptive parents lived.
    
10. Post your search on the PARR mailing list regularly- you never know who is reading, and where it could get forwarded to. Forward your search info to appropriate places. There really are people who just do tons of forwarding in the hopes your info gets under the right nose. Bless those angels! Be sure to include in your post permission to forward.
    
    Post your info any and everywhere. Go to any search engine and do a search on "adoption registries" or similar words- and start registering. 
     
11. Adoptees should place an ad in major newspaper(s) serving your birth city. Birthparents should place one in both adopted and birth cities as well. Pray that the right person sees it, or that someone who recognizes the info sees it and remembers their neighbor or classmate or cousin. It doesn't cost a lot. Take the long shots.
     
12. If you read info on a registry about PA searches, copy and post it to the list in case it helps anyone. Always get and mention the web address too in case we get a match.
     
13. PARR's database is viewable online.  This is an easy list for us all to print out and keep by the computer so we can look out for each other when websurfing. Also, feel free to send it on to other places or post it other places to help us all. We have a lot of folks who just read posts and that's okay- but what if the party you seek is on the list and also only reads? What if I mistype your info in my database? You'll never know! Please send your info to the list periodically!
     
14. Post to the PARR mailing list any problems you run into on your way. it's likely someone here could have found a way around it, have a letter that could help, or ideas. Ask for help.
     
15. If you are an adoptee and know the doc that delivered you, make an appointment to see him/her or write a letter. You may pay for an office visit, but you can thank the doc personally and see what you can get. Many doctors destroy records after the statute of limitations but some do not.
     
16.  If adopted, find out if your hospital had birth journals- small handwritten books of births, often called ob/gyn logs. You can try the records dept, archives dept, or the birth registrar's office, division of medical records. Wherever you go, try not to say the word "adoption" but try "genealogical research".  Keep in mind that hospitals are not required to keep your actual records forever.
     
17. Birth moms should contact the hospital and doctor and billing departments of hospitals to get their records. Who knows what you will find? Did someone else pay your bill? If you went through a private ob/gyn get those too.
     
18. If you are an adoptee kept any length of time by your birth parents and you know their religion, check with affiliated area churches. Maybe you were baptized.
     
19. Birth parents- if you know your child went to a family with a particular religion (maybe of your choosing) you could try to do the same, maybe over a six-month period.
     
20. Orphan search? You can try calling the Catholic churches that are around orphanages to obtain baptismal, 1st communion and any other info they might have. They may keep it in a separate book.
     
21. Adoptees, if you know your birth parents' high schools, colleges, tech schools, try to get or go see in the library copies of the annual year books, or post for help on the PARR Mailing list- maybe we can get info for each other. You can maybe look for resemblance (may work for some) or maybe you have a first name and can contact all those people. Find the school website; maybe there is alumni info or people to contact. Find people who may have been in your birth mom's class- people remember who disappeared, whose sick aunt in another town needed caring for, or was pregnant visibly.
     
22. If you are an adoptee and do not know how long your birth mom kept you, try contacting the primary newspapers in your town of birth to try to get your birth notice. Often, if it was known the birth mom intended to relinquish a child the hospital would not give the birth info to the newspapers- some actually would stamp "DNP" on the records (Do Not Publish) so no mistake would be made. HOWEVER- if no decision had been made at the time of your birth it is possible it made it to the paper. A long shot, but worth a phone call or two.
     
23. If you are a birth parent, do what you can to keep a working phone number with your name in the town your "child" may look for you- the name you went by (maiden or assumed) when you had your child. Maybe you have a friend or relative there you trust. The city part is not crucial, but it could be helpful if your child is not online and thus does not have access to "whole country" searches with a name. Make sure you are listed in all the major look-ups on the Internet.
     
24. Birth parents should consider keeping informal "tabs" on the other biological parent to the adoptee so when the time comes they can be easily located.
     
25. If you are on an instant message service with member directories, either adoptees or birth parents can look at cities people live in in their profiles as well as at their ages. You can locate regional people who seem happy to help in lookups. You could use this same system with no name to try to find classmates of someone you seek too, to see if they remember anyone having to leave school. Obviously use some discretion since you are talking with a stranger, but in general people are very cooperative.  If you instant message them they look it up on the spot generally and if she can't instant message them send an email.

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