For Adoptees

Resources

The Child Welfare Information Gateway (formerly the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse) is a good starting point for resource information.

The American Adoption Congress is committed to the right of all individuals to search for relatives from whom they have been separated by adoption. They offer answers to many frequently asked search questions .

The International Adoptee Congress (IAC) is a newly established membership organization made up of internationally adopted persons. The IAC is committed to empowering, supporting, and giving voice to all international adoptees and adoptee groups.

The International Soundex Reunion Registry is a non-profit, mutual consent reunion registry for persons desiring a reunion with next-of-kin. This is open to all adopted adults over 18 years of age and all birth parents, as well as all adoptive parents of adopted children under 18 years of age.

The Family Search Internet Genealogy Service (sponsored by the Church of the Latter Day Saints) is the largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.

If you are an adoptee born in New York State, a birth parent or biological sibling of a child born in New York State click HERE for more information regarding the New York State Adoption Information Registry.

Books and Articles:

• Should I Really Search and What Are My Reasons? by Colleen Buckner
• Making the Decision to Search by Shea Grim
• The Adoption Reunion Survival Guide by Julie Jarrell Bailey
• Search and Reunion Etiquette: The Guide Miss Manners Never Wrote by Monica N, Byrne
• Considerations for International Search by Susan Soon-Keum Cox
• Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience by Betty Jean Lifton
• Adoption Reunions: A Book for Adoptees, Birth Parents and Adoptive Families by Michelle McColm
• Birthright: The Guide to Search and Reunion for Adoptees, Birthparents, and Adoptive Parents by Jean A. S. Strauss

For Young Adult Adoptees:

• Edgar Allan by John Neufeld. A novel about transracial adoption, the South and a family's emotional upheavals. Teens.
• Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye by Lois Lowry. In this novel, 17-year old Natalie decides to look for her birth parents. Young adults.
• Where Are My Birth Parents? A Guide for Teenage Adoptees by Karen Gravelle and Susan Fischer. Addressing the quest for roots, heritage and identity, this book is directed to teens but valuable for all.
• Who Am I? And Other Questions of Adopted Kids by Charlene C. Giannetti. An excellent choice for preteen and teen adoptees in closed adoptions, this book addresses issues such as loyalty, family resemblance, and search with comments from young teens, parents, and professionals.

For Children:

• Tell Me Again About The Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis A wam celebraton of the special joys of an adopted family.
• Ages 4-8; Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale by Karen Katz. A tribute to families whose members may have come from a faraway place.
• Ages 2‐8; I Love You Like Crazy Cakes by Rose A. Lewis. The touching love story of the author's journey to adopt a Chinese baby.
• Ages 4‐8; The Mulberry Bird by Anne Braff Brodzinsky. Although she loves her baby very much, a young mother bird places him for adoption because she is unable to give him the home he needs.

Search Tips for Adoptees:

• Adoptees: Ask your parents for help
• Finding an old maternity home, hospital, agency
• Learn the language