back in 1979, i wrote to florence crittenton hospital and asked, under the freedom of information act of 1967 and 1974 to be sent the medical records for my mother. due to a fluke, my actual birth mother's name was included on my 'real' birth certificate which i accessed after my adoptive mother's death. for the record i was born in february of 1958 at the hospital and adopted at 4 days old. remember this was prior the advent of computers, identity theft, etc. i called the hospital from los angeles and asked where to send the written request. i have to admit, i pretended to be my mother, the person's whose name was on that birth certificate. my ruse was that i now had cancer and i was routinely requesting my medical records for each and every hospital stay. i simply typed a letter and signed it as her with my address and within a week, i received those hospital records that included my grandparents names. i thought about it for all of 5 minutes, called information for detroit and called about 3 persons with my grandfather's name before i finally reached my grandmother. i had an elaborate story about an inheritance for her daughter and need to contact her. i was a young actress in l.a. at the time and i had no problem pretending. you know what? my grandmother gave me my mother's phone number without hesitation. that was indeed a harder call to make, but i made it and the rest is history quite unlike what you see in the movies. by the way, my grandmother told me she knew who i was as soon as she heard my voice. she always hoped i would find her someday. i have only told a couple of my family members this story and it's been years. i don't know how much i've helped anyone here, but i encourage you to go for it and find out who you are using every investigative means at your disposal. good luck!