| Approximately 6 million Americans are adopted. When | | | | amended birth certificate. |
| you include biological parents, adoptive parents, and | | | | Searching Adoption Databases |
| siblings, you have a whole lot of people affected by | | | | The more information you have, the better results |
| adoption and involved in the adoption search. The | | | | you will get when searching adoption databases. |
| simple truth is that many people want to find the | | | | However, you can search with as little as your name. |
| ones they were separated from during the process. | | | | A word of warning here, many databases will give |
| Luckily, searching for birth parents and through | | | | you the adopted parents name only. You may want |
| adoption records has been made much easier thanks | | | | to read the database to see what you are likely to |
| to the Internet. Parents and children no longer need | | | | find before subscribing to the paid service. Of course, |
| to hire detectives or spend hours scanning old | | | | a money back guarantee is always a nice feature as |
| adoption records. They can now search in the | | | | well. |
| comforts of their own homes. | | | | Making Initial Contact |
| Beginning Your Adoption Search | | | | Once you find a name, you will want to make |
| The ultimate goal is locating a name. For children | | | | contact. Many people choose to place a phone call |
| affected by adoption, it is often easier to locate the | | | | while others prefer a letter. Either way is acceptable, |
| birth father than it is the birth mother, simply | | | | as long as you do not just show up. You want to |
| because the father will not change his name. Birth | | | | give the other person some time to adjust before |
| mothers get married, remarried, and change their | | | | arriving. |
| name, thus making it more difficult to track down.o | | | | With the name, you will want to do a people search. |
| Start your search by writing everything down you | | | | More than likely, the same place you did the adoption |
| know. You may know more than you think and at | | | | search will allow you to do a people search as well. |
| this point all information is important.o Next, ask the | | | | You need a first and last name as a minimum. Of |
| adoptive parents for the name. They may have one | | | | course, city and state make narrowing down your |
| to give you making the search so much easier.o | | | | search easier. This is why birth fathers are easier, |
| Locate all the documents related to the adoption | | | | since their name is not likely to change. |
| including, petition for adoption, final decree and the | | | | |