Adoption Resources Toolkit

WEB SITES

•Adoptees’ Liberty Movement Association

<www.almanet.com> ALMA’s site offers a national registry for adoptees and birth parents. Registrants place in a databank the sex, date of birth and place of birth for the child, which is the extent of common information known by the adoptee and natural parents.

•Adoptees Resources Home Page

<psy.ucsd.edu/-jhartung/adoptees.html> This site includes adoption-related news and legal notes, plus links to other adoption resources.

•Adoptee Searcher’s Handbook

<www.ouareau.com/adoptee/index.html> Check out this Canadian adoptee site with categorized links that can help with your US or international search, too.

•Adoption.com

<www.adoption.com> General adoption site.

•AdoptioNetwork

<www.adoption.org> Info for everyone in the adoption “triad” — adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents.

•AdoptionSearch

<www.adoptionsearch.com> Adoption-focused search engine.

•Adoption Search and Reunion

<www.nmia.com/~rema2/> Find a huge range of general how-to and links on searching for someone.

•Bastard Nation

<www.bastards.org> Activist site for adoptees to learn about legal issues. The site’s Action Alert has the latest on adoption-related news and court decisions.

•BirthQuest

<www.birthquest.org> This online registry service lets you search by a range of birth dates, adoptee’s birth city or hospital and birth mother’s name.

•Genealogy’s Most Wanted

<www.citynet.net/mostwanted> Queries are listed in alphabetical order. There are follow-up stories with people who found each other (“captures”) via the site.

•Kerrylynn’s Search Site

<www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/7575/> Links to searchable sites in every state, plus a listing of resources by topic.

•Legends & Legacies: Orphanages

<www.legends.ca/orphanages/orphanages.html> Browse the growing list of known orphanages nationally and internationally, plus learn about the history and types of orphanages.

•Orphan Train Heritage Society of America

<pda.republic.net/othsa/> Between 1853 and 1930, as many as 200,000 American children rode the Orphan Train. Learn the stories of orphans shipped out West as virtual indentured servants, and see if your ancestors were among the riders.

•Reunion Registry

<www.reunionregistry.com/default.asp> Free online registry affiliated with International Locator.

•Shea’s Search Series

<www.bastards.org/search/series.html> Detailed and well-organized guide to looking for birth families, from deciding to search through petitioning the court.

•Adoption Mailing Lists

<www.rootsweb.com/~jfuller/gen_mail_adoption.html> <adoption.about.com/msubemail.htm>

BOOKS

• Adoption, Identity and Kinship: The Debate Over Sealed Birth Records by Katarina Wegar (Yale University Press)

• Everything You Need To Know About Being Adopted by Laura Kaminker (Rosen Publishing Group)

• The Family of Adoption by Joyce Maguire Pavao (Beacon Press)

• The Legal Adoption Guide: Safely Navigating the System by Colleen Alexander-Roberts (Taylor Publishing)

• Where Are My Birth Parents: A Guide For Teenage Adoptees by Karen Gravelle (Walker and Co.)

ORGANIZATIONS, RESEARCHERS AND REGISTRIES

•American Adoption Congress

1000 Connecticut Ave. NW,Suite 9 Washington, DC 20036 (202) 483-3399 <www.american adoptioncongress.org>

•Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute

120 Wall St., 20th floor New York, NY 10005 (212) 269-5080 <www.adoptioninstitute.org>

•National Adoption Information Clearinghouse

330 C St. sw Washington, DC 20447 (888) 251-0075 <www.calib.com/naic/index.htm> Find out what adoption and vital records you can access in each state, along with other adoption-related news and links.

•Adoption Connection

1349 E. Mariposa Ave. Salt Lake City, UT (801) 278-4858

•BigHugs.com

2503 DelPrado Blvd. Cape Coral, FL 33904 (800) BIG-HUCS <www.bighugs.com>

•International Soundex Reunion Registry

Box 2312 Carson City, NV 89702 (775) 882-7755 <www.isrr.net>