Adoption Search, Birth Family Search, Reunion - Searching in the Digital Age

07/25/06

Searching in the Digital Age - Part 2

Posted by : Jan Baker in Adoption Search Blog at 08:33 am , 345 words, 188 views
Categories: Choices in Search

Searching for an adoptee or birth parent once you have their name is much easier than it used to be. With all the available data bases that can be accessed on the Internet, searching is vastly less taxing. Some of these data bases are free; others provide information for nominal charges. There are some data bases, however, that are available only at significant costs.

Many private investigators and professional adoption searchers have data bases that are not available to the average searcher. One Saturday morning, I sat down with a birth mom friend of mine who has been an adoption searcher for many years. She showed many how many of her data bases operate. I was astounded by how people can be found with such limited amounts of information.

Here is a selection of many free databases. Some do charge for certain records, but generally offer some free information as well:

SPONSOR

http://www.pac-info.com

http://www.anywho.com

http://www.infospace.com

Reverse directories - search for a person’s name by entering the telephone number or address:

http://reversedirectory.langenberg.com

By area code - enter an area code to find the city it represents.

http://areacodes.langenberg.com

By e-mail address - enter an e-mail address to see who owns it. (This is incomplete because many e-mail addresses are not listed).

http://my.email.address.is/efreverse.htm

http://www.iaf.net

Public records online - access to a gold mine of public records that can be found on the Internet.

http://vitalrec.com has links to sources for births, deaths and marriage records.

http://www.knowx.com has charges that apply to some searches. A few, such as professional license, death and marriage searches, are free.

http://www.netronline.com/public_records.htm

http://distantcousin.com/ - Genealogy site.

http://www.cyndislist.com/adoption.htm

There are many genealogical sites which may be helpful as well.

Do you have any favorite links that you like and use? If so, let me know and I will include them in a subsequent post.

2 comments

Comments, Pingbacks:

Comment from: leslieannone [Member]

y conscience prompts me to share the following warning. Please be careful when hiring a private detection agency for your adoption search, particulary Omnitrace Corp. Although their website and blogs are carefully arranged to ascribe to the successes of their business, they do have many dissatisfied customers that I have become aware of through my interactions with the Better Business Bureau and internet. In my case, Omnitrace interviewed me and reassured me that I had more than enough information for them to find my birth mother, though they legally disclaimed they could not promise definitive results. I was told the average case took 8 months to solve. There were no leads in my case after 13 months and $1300.00. I would have been more understanding had Omnitrace not lost pertinent search documents I had intially issued and lied about contacting the physician who delivered me (the physician himself told me Omnitrace had never contactd him after one of the managers told me they had made every attempt to track him down). Here is the kicker-a confidential intermediary in the State of Washington found my birth mother in less than 3 months. I would implore anyone considering Omnitrace to go through alternative means less expensive and time consuming, including a confidential intermediary.

Permalink 11/03/07 @ 16:04