Clerk of Records Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans’ Court Division Erie County Court House 140 West Sixth Street Erie, PA 16501 814-451-6260 Dear Ms. Shay: In response to your inquiry of April 4, 2001, I am enclosing herewith a Petition that may be filed by any adoptee over the age of 18 who is searching for his biological parents. If we find that the adoption has been held in Erie County and the Petition has been filed, it is turned over to Ms. Carole VanDuzer,Adoption Investigator for the Court. She does some of the investigation and it is then turned over to an agency. A birth parent may put a form in our file giving their name,location and permission to give this information to the adoptee. They can not instigate a search for the child. I cannot tell you the Agency that would be conducting the search after Ms. VanDuzer has done her search. There are different Agencies. Mrs. Van Duzer’s address is: Erie County Court House, Erie, PA 16501 Sincerely, Betty Flanagan Assistant Clerk of Records [Enclosed was information regarding adoption search requests.] The Erie County Court of Common Pleas Family/Orphans’Division has established procedures to handle adoption search requests. The following outlines those procedures. If you file a petition and the Court approves it, you are entitled to non-identifying information (e.g., nationality, religion, etc.) available in the Court’s file. If you are interested in receiving this information, please fill out the form entitled Petition for Release of limited information and forward it with a check for $75 made payable to “Clerk of the Orphans’ Court” to the Register of Wills office, Erie County Courthouse, 140 West Sixth Street, Erie, PA 16501. In addition, if you wish to initiate a search for the birthparents to obtain their consent to release their identity, the Petition for Release of Identifying Information must be completed and filed. The fee for this service is $150.00, and would be forwarded to the Register of Wills Office in the same manner. Please understand that legal obligation of confidentiality prevent the Court from doing anything other than what has already been stated. +++++++++ Note: the forms can be obtained from the courthouse in Erie or if someone wants me to scan and mail them a copy I will do so if they send me a self addressed stamped envelope. Due to limited space here I am not going to type and include the petitions.