The Adoption of Children Act Amendment Act 1926 (Act no. 057 of 1926 (17 Geo. V No. 57)) further increased adoption secrecy by enabling a new birth certificate to be issued upon adoption. Previously, the ‘fact’ of the adoption was obvious on the child’s amended birth certificate because the details of the birth parents had been retained. After the amendments a new birth certificate could be issued when a child was adopted, with their new name and parents recorded.
When an order of adoption was made, the child could be granted a new birth certificate, which showed their original place and date of birth but included only the new names and adressess of their adoptive parents. An application to issue the new birth certificate needed to be made to the Registrar General.
This birth certificate also included a reference to the order of adoption which was noted in the Registrar General’s birth index so that the relationship between the original and new birth certificates could be easily tracked. However, access to the information would only be allowed with the approval of the Registrar General.