States With Open Adoption Records

States With Open Adoption Records

There are several states that have open adoption records.  In these states, an adult adoptee can get an original birth certificate and in some instances more adoption record information.

If you are an adoptee looking for your birth parents in an open adoption records state, please request your open adoption records.  However, when you obtain your original birth records, your search might still be difficult.  Having information such as your birth mother’s maiden name and perhaps her old address is a great start, but you will still need to get her current name and address information.  Your birth mother might have changed her name several times, or she might not live in the state where you were adopted.

If you need help with your search, please contact OmniTrace!

Here is a list of states where adoption records for all or some years are open.  In some states, birth parents can sign a no-contact veto: Read More

Adoption Searching for Birth Mother or Adoptee

Adoption searching for a birth mother or adopted child is tough work.  Each search is unique and the methods and resources OmniTrace uses vary depending on a number of circumstances:

• When was the adoptee born?
• Where was the adoptee born?
• When and where did the adoption take place?
• Was the adoption done through an adoption agency?
• Was the adoptee born in a hospital?
• Which hospital?
• Any name info on the birth mother (adoption searching for birth mother)?
• Any name info on the adopting parents (adoption searching for adoptee)?

Of course, for most adoption searching cases, we usually begin with Read More

Biological Family Search – What OmniTrace Provides…

Biological Family Search

When you request OmniTrace to conduct your biological family search, here’s what we will make every attempt to provide you:

• The name of your biological mother
• The name of your biological father
• The names of your biological siblings and any additional family relatives (e.g., grandparents, aunts, uncles)
• Non-identifying information and identifying information covering the background history of your adoption  (In other words, what the heck happened when you were born.)
• Any available medical records on your biological mother (when records have not been destroyed)
• Background and genealogical history on your biological family members
• The current addresses and phone numbers of all biological family members that we identify.

Complete the simple form on THIS PAGE and start your biological family search now!

Man Reunites With Birth Mother At 54

After Ray Martinez’s adoptive parents passed away, he searched for and found his birth mother to tell her, “Thank you for giving me life.”  She initially hung up the phone on him, but then called back.

Colorado native, Ray Martinez, writes about living in an orphanage, being adopted and much later in life, finding his birth mother.  The complete story appears in “Mom:  A Celebration of Mothers from StoryCorps” (The Penguin Press, $21.95).  Ray is a former mayor of Fort Collins.  He now heads business development and public relations for Information Technology eXperts Inc.

“I was raised in the Colorado State Children’s Home in Denver. They kept kids from infancy to age eighteen or nineteen years old. I was there from infancy to age five. I remember that the orphanage had this practice where they would allow potential parents to check you out like a library book: they could borrow you for a couple of weeks, take you home, and see if you were a fit for their family.

A couple of times I remember riding in the car, leaving the orphanage with potential parents, and them just trying to make me happy and make me laugh, and me sitting in the front in these little booster seats cars had back then in the fifties. But I never remember…”

You can read the complete article in the Denver Post.  Please share your thoughts with us.

Using Social Media To Conduct Your Adoption Search

Adoption Search

Social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google can be very helpful when conducting an adoption search.  Not only can you search these sites for listings your birth family members might have posted, you can also post your adoption search details on many of these sites.   

Here is a New York Daily News video and article on how Jonathan Frank conducted an adoption search and found his birth brother and birth sister with the help of Facebook.

Here is a CNN News Story on how a Pennsylvania woman used Google to resolve her adoption search and find her birth family. 

When OmniTrace begins a new adoption search, we utilize state-of-the-art databases, a worldwide network of researchers and private investigation methods to find birth family.  We also take advantage of the many free social media websites so we have every chance to successfully complete your adoption search.

If you are conducting an adoption search on your own, please be sure to visit the Read More

City Directories – A Good Source To Find Birth Parents

Find Birth Parents

City Directories can be and extremely effective resource when trying to find birth parents. 

City Directories have been published for well over a 100 years in most major cities throughout the United States.  City directories have also been published in smaller towns throughout the country.  Although a city directory looks similar to a telephone directory, it contains much more genealogical information to help find birth parents:

• Addresses and names of persons / birth parents within a household
• Employment information on persons / birth parents within a household
• Property ownership information
• Marital status

City Directories also have a Read More

New Jersey Adoption Search

New Jersey Adoption Search

Are you conducting a New Jersey adoption search?  

A while back, we wrote that a bill to open adoption records in New Jersey had been passed by the New Jersey Senate and was being considered for approval by the New Jersey Assembly.  If passed, an adoptee would have access to his/her original birth certificate as long as a no contact veto was not signed by the birth parents. 

Here is that complete post:  Good News About Finding Birth Parents In New Jersey 

OmniTrace recently contacted the New Jersey Office Of Legislative Services for an update.  Bill S611 has not yet been approved.  They informed us that Read More

Searching For Birth Mother; Searching For Adoptee – Call The Library!

Searching For Birth Mother | Searching For Adoptee

The Public Library is a great resource if you are searching for your birth mother or searching for an adoptee. 

Not convinced?  Here’s just one example of how a library can help you when searching for your birth mother: 

If you were adopted in New York City and have your amended (adopted) birth certificate, you can obtain your original birth name by visiting the New York Public Library Genealogy Department.  This department has original birth listings (in birth books and on microfiche) dating back Read More

Searching For Birth Mother – You Never Know What You’re Gonna Get

Searching For Birth Mother 

By Chris Maione – OmniTrace Research Department Manager

Have you seen Forrest Gump?  It was a great flick.  In the movie, Forrest’s mother, played by actress: Sally Field,  told Forrest:

Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re gonna get.

That quote REALLY applies when searching for a birth mother!  Here’s a case in point: 

Last year, Omnitrace was retained by Read More

Anatomy Of A Birth Mother Search

Birth Mother Search

By Chris Maione – OmniTrace Research Department Manager

Our OmniTrace research team accesses multiple resources when we search for a birth mother.  The more information we can develop on the birth mother, the better our chance of finding her and other birth family members. 

Here’s a recent case where our client requested that we conduct a birth mother search on his behalf…

Our client was born on the east coast.  One of our OmniTrace contacts–a genealogist– (source #1), was able to uncover the birth mother’s maiden name, age (born in the early 1930′s), and the town she was Read More