""I was told I had to get a judge to open the records even to tell me yes or no about the possible adoption""

I am sorry to say...it would appear you were adopted. If you were not adopted, a copy of your original birth certificate would have been given to you...without any problems whatsoever. The minute someone told you in the Vital Stats office that it would take a judge to 'open the records', means you were adopted. I know of no other circumstance, other than adoption, where an original birth certificate would be withheld from someone and directed to contact a judge to 'open the records'. Because of your age...it was quite the norm in those times for adopters not to tell their adopted children that they were adopted. They then could pass off their adopted children 'as if born to'. In those days immediately after WWII, there was also great stigma attached to the couple who was infertile and could not conceive their own child. Hence the 'cover-up' and never telling their adopted children of their adoptive status. This is yet another travesty of lies visited upon the adopted person.