I am neither an adoptee nor a birthparent, but over the years several foster children have lived in my home, many of whom were later adopted. I was then asked to help search for birthfamilies for some of my foster children, and was surprised at how challenging it was, despite the fact that I had a lot of identifying information, including their full names, birth dates and general location.

I am a paralegal and hr manager, and subscribe to several proprietary legal, court, and people-finder databases. Other volunteer searchers with POD, have access to additional resources for conducting a search. And, of course, the Internet is a great resource. But when searching on the Internet, it is frustrating to discover a possible match for someone, only to find that there is no way to contact the other party, either because the post is old, and the e-mail address is no longer valid, or because there was no obvious place to leave an e-mail address or other contact information.

We made the decision to develop the POD Registry, to gather fresh contact information for adoptees and birthfamilies who are searching. The POD Registry will always be free, and no information will ever be sold or disseminated for any other purpose. Please keep in mind, however, that the information posted to the POD Registry is accessible to the general public, and privacy is neither intended, nor implied. So, if there is any information that you do not want in the public domain, DO NOT post it to the POD Registry.

If you are contacted by a paid searcher from information that you posted to the POD Registry, please notify us by e-mail as soon as possible. If you are a volunteer searcher and would like to network with us, please contact us by e-mail and tell us about yourself and experience, and what resources you can bring. We especially would like to hear from volunteer searchers who have access to resources in specific counties and states.

Sometimes, family resemblances can be undeniable. For that reason, the POD Registry was set up to post photographs. If you would like a photograph to be posted with your registration, simply forward the photograph to the POD Registry by e-mail (see example).

WARNING NOTICE TO PAID SEARCHERS: The POD Registry is free for all to conduct a search, but please DO NOT SOLICIT business through POD. Any paid searcher who does not heed this warning, will be publicly exposed.

The POD Registry is now officially open, but we are still in the process of developing a comprehensive website with additional adoption reunion resources, so I hope that you will be be patient, while the remainder of the website is undergoing construction.