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Guide No. 31 Adoption and Orphans Research
International
Soundex Reunion Registry
All
About Adoption Research
How to Search for Birth Family or Adoptee
Well-known Adopted Persons, Birth Parents and Adoptive Parents
National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
More Adoption Links |
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Family historians who are adoptees themselves or encounter an adopted or an orphaned ancestor often require additional and special research skills in order to solve the puzzle. This research can be complicated by such factors as whether this event took place recently or several generations back, whether there was a legal, black-market, or an informal adoption, whether an ancestor was reared by foster parents (and whether the foster parents were related or unrelated to the birth parents), was placed in an institution or was part of various groups, such as Orphan Train Riders (American), Ragged Schools (British) or some other child emigration movements (Canada)
Whether
medical, genetic, genealogical or personal, the
In
the United States many states' adoption
laws creating so-called modern sealed records date Social
workers, agencies and lawmakers were not alone in Sealed
records sounded good on paper, but the system had
While
modern-day adoption has worked to some measure by
Genealogical research and the search of adoptees to find living birth parents and relatives are similar research quests, but not exactly the same. If your goal is to find living persons (for reunion purposes) your path will be different than if you are seeking to identify your ancestors.
New York State Library Search Strategy Material (books, documents, URLs, and organizations) Askin, Jane. Search: A Handbook for Adoptees and Birthparents. (3rd edition). Phoenix, Arizona: Oryx Press, 1998. U.S. related.
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