With so many people across the United States engaged in a birth parent search, it is no wonder that people have questions on where to start looking, even if it is possible to find their birth parents. In the last few decades, the Internet has made searching adoption records much easier.

Therefore, whether you are the birth parents or you are searching for your birth parents, you will want to start here with these frequently asked questions.

FAQ #1: Where do I start to search for my birth parents?

Start by getting an adoptive journal. Before you ask any questions, you will need a place to write everything down. You will soon be given lots of facts, names, dates, places, and agencies. You will need a place to write all this down. This journal will need to be readily available, so don’t make it too big and bulky.

You can keep a master file on your computer, but you will also want something portable. Therefore, don’t think you can “remember” everything and type it up later when you get home.

FAQ #2: Who has the adoption records?

The adoptive parents will have a copy of the records. You should always start with your adoptive parents when looking for records, as they will always have the most accurate information. It may be hard to ask them, but they will have the name of the agency and all the court papers from the adoption process. They could possibly hold the names of the birth parents right there putting an end to the search before it even begins.

Don’t forget to write down all the information you find down.

FAQ #3: What can the adoption agency tell me?

The adoption agency can tell you more than you think. Most people think since adoption records are sealed, they won’t be able to get anything from the adoption agency. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, you can learn a lot from what is called non-indentifying information. It can include:

•    Possible reasons you were given up for adoption

•    Age of birth parents at time of birth

•    Age and sex of biological siblings at time of birth

•    The ethnicity of your birth parents

•    Medical history of birth parents

•    Religion of birth parents

•    Geographic location of your birth parents at time of birth

FAQ #4: Once I find the birth parent name, what do I do?

Once you locate one or more of your birth parents’ names, it is up to you to proceed. You can do a people search to locate telephone numbers and addresses. At that point, you can decide to call or write. It is hard to say which one is best, as every situation is different. Only you can decide which is right for you.

A birth parent search may not be easy but not finding them is even harder. You can start your search today by looking through adoption records.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

Approximately 6 million people in the United States are adopted. When you extrapolate that out to biological parents, adoptive parents, and siblings, you have one in eight people effected by adoption. No wonder so many people are trying to find birth parents. Unfortunately, people are making many mistakes in the search. Avoid making these mistakes and finding answers will be a lot easier.

Mistake #1: They Don’t Write it Down
This is a common mistake that rookie private eyes make. When you are searching for your birth parents, you need to think like a private eye. Start by writing everything you know about yourself and your birth place down including the hospital, the agency, and anything else you can think of down. Keep it in an adoption journal for quick reference.

Mistake #2: They Don’t Ask the Family
Whether they are scared or embarrassed, it is a big mistake. Many times adoptive children do not ask the one person who has the most information. The adoptive parents hold all the records. Ask them! They may actually know the name of the biological parents. Don’t forget to write all this information down as well.

In addition, ask other family and friends as well. You never know who may have kept in contact or have that one memory or name that may help. It could be a date or a city. Write it all down because it could be useful later on in your search.

Mistake #3: They Don’t Ask the Agency for Information
As the adoptee, you can petition the adoptive agency for non-identifying information. While it won’t give you a name, it does give you all kinds of fun facts about your biological family. This information can help you narrow down your search later and may tell you if you have biological siblings. It can include:

• Age of biological parents at time of birth
• Age and sex of biological sibling at time of birth
• The ethnicity of your biological parents
• Possible reasons why they gave you up for adoption
• Medical History
• Religion
• Geographic Location at time of birth

Mistake #4: Don’t Use the Internet to Search Public Records
At this point, many people simply give up. They feel they cannot afford to hire a private detective to search for their birth parents. Therefore, they just give up. They do not even consider trying to do an Internet search for themselves. This is a huge mistake. You can search birth records, adoptive records, and even do a people search from the privacy of your own home all you have to do is look.

When you find your birth parents, it may not be easy but not finding them is even harder. You can start your search today by looking through adoption records.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

With an estimated 2% of the U.S population adopted, it is no wonder that so many people are searching for their birth parents. In nationwide surveys, the large majority of these adoptees and the birth parents have at some point in their lives tried to find the parent or child separated by the adoption process.

If you are one of these people searching for someone you lost in the adoption process, there are steps you can take to help you reunite.

Step 1: Begin with the Adoption Information that You Already Have
Write down everything you know about yourself and the adoption. Include when you were born, the hospital, the agency that handled the adoption and anything you can think of that might be useful.

Step 2: Go to Your Adoptive Parents
They may have more information than you may think. Write it all down, no matter how useless you may think it is. This is also the time to approach other relatives, as they may hold clues to your biological parents as well.

Step 3: Petition the Agency for Non-Identifying Information
The non-identifying information will tell you all kinds of stuff about your biological family.

• It should let you know if they are living or dead.
• How old they were when you were born.
• How many other children they had when you were born.
• The ethnicity of your biological parents
• Possible reasons why they gave you up for adoption
• Medical History
• Religion
• Possible Geographic Location

Step 4: Begin Gathering Documents
This is the time to start your online search. You can go online and search court records, birth records, adoptive records, and even do people searches. It is fast and easy. You can turn up quite a bit of information in a very short amount of time.

This will be your best shot at actually contacting your biological parents. Once you begin the online search, things start coming together fast. So brace yourself for what happens when you are ready to find birth parents.

Step 5: Register with State and National Agencies
Sometimes, the files are locked up so tight you cannot find information. However, starting in the 1990s, adoption cases became more open as women wanted to become more involved. This is good news for adoptive children as they are easier to located.

In any case, if you are looking and cannot find anything you need to register with state and national reunion registries. One of the best reunion registries to date is the International Soundex Reunion Registry ISRR.

Parents and children register hoping that the other will register and they can be reunited. While it is a long shot, if you register and your parent registers, then can reunite with your birth parents.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

If you are trying to find information about a divorce docket online, then here are some things that you will want to know. If you don’t know this already, a divorce docket is a schedule and record of the divorce proceedings as filed by the court system.

A docket is also considered a calendar of events. So, if you suspect that a person intends to file for a divorce, then you might want to check the court’s docket system to see if any complaints or divorce papers have recently gone on file.

A family may try very hard to hide the initial stages of a divorce from the public. But, if large sums of inheritance or other intimate matters are on the line, then it might be best to confirm that a divorce request has been submitted to the courthouse.

Divorce Dockets Online

You can access the upcoming schedule of divorce cases by searching an online divorce docket.

The most private and efficient way to do this is to find a site that specializes in tracking down that divorce record information for you.

It can be much faster than hiring a private eye (who will likely just use an online resource and charge you an unnecessary overhead). It will certainly be much faster than showing up and requesting the information in person.

Docket Terminology

Divorce documents can contain terminology that is confusing for the layperson. If you were not directly involved in the divorce, then you may want to search for sites that outline these terms for you.

That way, it will be easier to digest and understand the information provided by the divorce record. A website that can provide this information for you might also be helpful in tracking down other public records necessary for your research.

You wouldn’t want to raise a fuss about something that you’ve misunderstood. A relationship would go downhill very fast if you accused someone of something that they are actually innocent of!

Maintain Privacy and Discretion

Even though divorce records are public domain, it might be in your best interest if the information is not known by several parties.

Searching online is an excellent way to find the information you want without it passing through several hands. The less eyes on this information, then the better. Divorce documents will contain personal and private information that could be harmful to the parties involved if the information went completely public.

It is likely that you don’t want some frustrated clerk handling these papers. Not only are they very busy (and could take a long time with the papers), but they might become unprofessionally interested in the information that they find!

While looking for more information involving divorce dockets, hearings, proceedings, and public records, check out this online resource for more information on divorce records and divorce dockets for your researching needs.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

If you need to know about your lover’s past relationships, then you’ll want to do a divorce records search. It is the one of the best ways to find out if they are hiding anything from you.

Divorces can be nasty, miserable, and disastrous affairs. People can behave in immoral, inhuman, and illegal ways.

This is why most people will try to hide all the nasty details and bury it in the past.

Has Your Lover Broken the Law?

Adultery, stalking, theft, abuse, and even murders have happened because people find divorce so painful. If your lover has been through a messy divorce, then you might want to check up and see if they are hiding any of these behaviors from you.

Most likely, they have done some things that they are ashamed of and won’t quickly confess to.

If your boyfriend or girlfriend is hiding something like that from you, then it is your right to know. You need to know what kind of relationship you’re dealing with.

Are There Kids You Don’t Know About

If your lover doesn’t have full custody of his or her children, then they might not tell people they are dating about them. Although it is common, people with kids believe that no one wants to date someone with extra baggage.

Even without full custody, children require time, attention, and financial responsibilities. This kind of outside obligation will have a major impact on your relationship.

It is up to you to decide whether you want to be in a relationship that involves children. But, in order for you to decide, you have to know about them first!

Did Their Previous Partner File a Restraining Order?

It would be useful for you to know if your lover’s previous marriage partner was forced to file a restraining order on them.

Perhaps they couldn’t let go of the marriage. Maybe they felt the need to terrorize or stalk their ex-partner. Whatever the reason, the information is out there for you to know.

It could very well be dangerous for you to enter a relationship with this kind of person.

Yes, we all do things in stressful situations that we are not proud of, but we all have a limit. What crazy behaviors has your lover been capable of in the past?

You’ll need to know this kind of information before you lay your heart (and other resources) on the line. So, conduct a divorce records search on your boyfriend or girlfriend and see exactly what kind of person they are, before it’s too late.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

Sometimes things happen and we lose contact with those we love the most. That is when a search by SSN means the most. It may have been a fight. It may have been a death. It could have been any number of things that made you lose touch with someone you care about.

Now years have passed, and you are uncertain if you will ever see that person ever again. However, some things you can do may help you locate that lost love one.

Locating People by Social Security Number
Social security numbers are individual and they track people down the fastest. If anyone in the family has the social security number of the lost individual, then try to find it first.

Then all you need to do is go online and do a reverse social security number lookup. Enter the number along with the last name. This information will give you current and previous addresses of the individual. If nothing else, you will get a phone number and a place of employment.

From there, you can either do another reverse lookup on the phone number or place of employment to find the address of the individual. Then it is simple as calling or writing the person.

Locating the Person by Marriage Records
If you are looking a loved one and you are afraid they might be married, then a court records check is always a good idea. Then information is available to the public by Freedom of Information Act.

You will need:

• Name of Bride/Groom
• City (optional)
• State (optional)
• Age (optional)
• Credit Card/PayPal
• Internet Connection

The more information you have the better because it helps to narrow down the possibilities. All you do is go online to one of many court records databases. Type in the name of the person you are looking for with any additional information you have. Then you narrow it down until you get to the person you are trying to locate. It will then list any marriages associated with that person. If there is a marriage record, then you can cross check for a divorce record.

Locating People with a General People Search
If all else fails and you still are searching, then you can do a generic people search. This takes more time and you will need to narrow down the list more, but you can still find the person. Type in the name, city and state, and start narrowing down the list of people until you think you have found the person.

Your loved one is out there and you do not have to hire a private eye to find them. You can start searching today by SSN or through other databases in the comfort of your own home. You just may find your loved one tonight if you start looking.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

When researching genealogy, every piece of information you discover is a new piece of the puzzle and a social security number is no different. However, knowing how to conduct a search by social security number is a different story altogether. Basically, a social security search is conducted based on whether the person is living or dead and whether you want to search online.

Let’s start with a living person.

Social Security Search for a Living Person
If you are trying to search for a living person by their social security number, you will need to conduct a reverse social security number look up. This means you go online to a social security number database and input their number and last name. You will need a credit card or a PayPal account to process the information.

Since a living person’s information is highly private, the most you can expect is current and previous addresses and phone numbers. You may get a current employer listed. However, that should be enough to get you in contact with whoever you are looking to contact.

Social Security Search for a Dead Person via Social Security Administration
The SSA will conduct a records search. All you need to do is provide the SSA the full name, state of birth, proof of death, and social security number of the deceased. You wait while the SSA does the research and then they send you their findings. It is not exactly the fastest of searches, but it is a government agency so what do you expect?

Freedom of Information Officer
4-H-8 Annex Building
6401 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, Maryland 21235

Social Security Search for a Dead Person Via the Internet
By far the fastest way to find records is an Internet search. It works the same way as a living person search except you can find more since the person is dead. When you conduct a social security search, you can expect to find:

• Personal Papers
• Death Certificates
• Funeral Home Records
• Bank Records
• Voter Registration
• Former Employers

Locating a social security number in genealogy research really is a treasure. Don’t let your treasure go to waste. Start your social security records search today. It really is easier than ever.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS

Many people get excited when they discover a social security number during a records search. Unless you know how to conduct a people search by social security number, it really doesn’t do much good.

While a social security number is limited to just one person, most public records do not list the number. Consider your records for example. How many of your records have your social security number plastered on it? Unless you want to hire a professional, you need to start using this information creatively.

If the person is dead, request a Social Security Administration records search
If you know the name, state of birth, and date of birth of the individual you can request the Social Security Administration do a social security records search. You will need to provide the Social Security Administration proof of death since this information is not available on anyone that is living.

Freedom of Information Officer
4-H-8 Annex Building
6401 Security Boulevard
Baltimore, Maryland 21235

It is libel to turn up something worthwhile, although, I would not hold my breath waiting for the information. The SSA is notorious for taking their time in records research.

If the person is dead, you can do an Online Social Security search
An online social security number search will get you results much faster. I must say the Internet made genealogy research fun again and practically put private detectives out of business.

Not to say that private eyes can’t do better work because they can. They can dig up stuff that you probably can’t find. But if you have a social security number and a last name, enter it.

There are tons of online reverse social security number databases to choose access. Personally, I like using ones that have PayPal but as long as you have a credit card, you are good. You need the social security number and a last name. You should be able to access stuff like:

• Personal Papers
• Death Certificates
• Funeral Home Records
• Bank Records
• Voter Registration
• Former Employers

If the person is still alive, you can search Online
Actually, if the person is alive, you can only search online or hire a private detective. A person’s social security number is private and there is not a whole lot of information to be found for a living person.

Do not expect to find a lot of information on a living person. Although, even with the privacy surrounding a living person’s social security number, you can do a reverse look up and you can find a person’s current address.

Therefore, if you are currently looking for an old flame and happen to have their social security number lying around the house, give it a shot. A people search by social security just might worth a shot.

Re-Tweet This Post RSS