Marriage records are open to the public, as well as divorce records. If you know either of your natural parent’s names you can go to the Marriage License office in the local court house and a clerk will assist you in checking for a marriage license. You need only the first and last name of the person you are searching for since most localities are indexed by both parties’ names who are applying for the license. Ask for a 10 year search of records after your birth. If you can't find records for your natural parents, check for possible relatives.

You always want to do your own research. It may be beneficial to ask the clerk to show you how to use the record books. Even if you have only a first name for your natural mother or natural father, searching the marriage licenses may be beneficial especially if the name is not a common name. You would be searching for all the females with the first name that you are searching for that were married after your birth for a five year time span.

A marriage license application will provide you with the names of the couple getting married, officiating person, wife's maiden name and divorced name, if divorced, ages, race, residence, occupations, birthplaces, mother's and father's names, number of previous marriages, and date of marriage. If you only have a first name you may be able to use your non identifying information to help in the process of elimination.

Once you have a marriage license, you want to go to the office that maintains the divorce decrees. This is usually the Prothonotary office in the county court house as well. You want to search the divorces for any time after the marriage took place to see if there was a divorce. If you find a divorce, you will want to obtain a complete copy of the divorce decree. This will provide additional information that may be helpful in locating your natural parent.

If a divorce is discovered, you want to return to searching for a marriage license to see if the natural parent remarried sometime after the divorce.