ISO Birth Family

[planetgeorge]

Hi everyone. I'm an adoptee in search of my birth family. I was born on April 23, 1969 at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, FL. I was approximately 2 months premature and my birth weight was 4 lbs. 14 oz. The adoption was handled by The Children's Home, Inc

Comments

[bastun_ie]

This group is mostly dead, I think. Yours is the first post I've seen in ages. Have you tried Bastard Nation? I think they have Florida chapters, and they could probably give you a very good steer on available 'DIY' tracing resources.

(Um, my first reply apparently got marked as spam, so I've taken out the url for BN).

[planetgeorge]

I haven't checked Bastard Nation yet but I just brought up the site. I've also been joining and posting to a bunch of adoptee groups on Facebook and found an adoption database. Thanks for the info!

[flitterflutter]

The agency that handled it has no resources in place to help you facilitate this? I am ten years younger (the laws changed with time and they vary by state...) and in MI, but I was able to contact the agency that handled my adoption and since they had the files and info, even though my records are'sealed' with the state, they were able to put us in contact. i DID have to pay a few hundred for an intermediary to make initial contact on my behalf and get some permissions signed, but total start to finish the process from me first contacting the agency to meeting birth fam took about 6 months

[planetgeorge]

I need to contact the agency to see what info, if any, they'll release to me.

[flitterflutter]

Depending on the laws in your state and what forms they do or don't have on file, they probably will not release anything to you, at least not right away. I WAS able to have them release additional "non identifying" info to me in addition to the couple of paragraphs i had always had. i found out a few additional facts, like my birth parents ages, that way. I had to jump through some hoops and wait a bit to obtain actual identifying information. Regardless, I would start by contacting the agency. They will be familiar with your case and be able to tell you what laws apply and point you in a helpful direction towards helpful resources.

[itsjustnic]

Looks like my post was marked as spam because I put a url in there. I found my birthmom on adoption dot com. Maybe try there? :)

[planetgeorge]

I'm registered there but haven't quite figured out how to navigate the site. Had your birth mother registered on the site that she was searching for you?

[itsjustnic]

The site really isn't designed very well so I can understand the confusing navigation. Go to the tab at the top and highlight the title "Search and Reunion" then click on "Reunion Registry". It brings you to a screen that looks like you need to register but you don't. Scroll down past all that to "Quick Search" and put the info in there. If she is registered on the site then she should pop up.

I was actually the first to register. I don't remember how long I had been registered before she found my listing and called. Good luck!!

[planetgeorge]

I tried the quick search and there were no matches found. I think I registered several years ago but I just updated it last week. We'll see if anything happens from here.

[anotheradoptee]

Ask you're parents about any legal paperwork they might have from your adoption, the state I live in refers to this as the 'decree of adoption', which is basically a legal document linking you to your parents, basically saying they are now your legal parents for all intent and purposes. And in the case of both me, and my brother, our birth names were on there, which helped.

Only place you'll the (birth) parent(s) name(s) would be is in the case files (super sealed), birth certificate (mother might have left off father's name), and legal documents at time of surrender (super sealed).

I would be cautious of spending money on a private investigator until you had non identifying info from the agency.

Have you tried searching for an adoption search support group?