FOR BEST RESULTS PLEASE USE U.S. POSTAL STATE ABBREVIATIONS
WHEN SEARCHING BY DATES USE MM/DD/YYYY FORMAT

These are some tips for searching that take some legwork, but don't cost anything.

If you are a birthmother, you know that you gave birth, but don't assume that the adoptee knows that he or she is adopted, and don't assume that the date of birth furnished to an adoptee, is correct. If the adoptee is searching, you have to consider what kind of non-id information would be in the file about you and other members of the birthfamily. Likewise, if you are a birthfather or other relative who is searching.

If you are an adoptee searching, don't assume that the information that you have been given is correct. Your birth date is a good place to start, but birth dates have been altered in some cases. Make sure that you get your non-id information from the agency that handled the adoption. In some cases, if you can go there in person, the case worker will leave the file on the desk, and leave the room for a short time. They aren't allowed by law to give you the information, but if you look for yourself, well... If that's not available go to the court, and if no luck there, try to get the hospital record of your birth. This may be tricky, but sometimes you may get a sympathetic party on the line, who is willing to help you out.

Somewhere, there is a record of the transfer of physical custody of the adoptee from the jurisdiction in the county where the adoptee was born, to the jurisdiction where the adoptee was placed. If the adoptee was in foster care for a period of time, there would be a case file for the child, prior to the adoption file which is sealed. If the adoptee was born in one county and adopted in another, there would be a transfer of physical custody filed, which would not be sealed. Likewise, for an adoptee who is born in one state, and adopted in another. The more information you have to start your search, the greater the chance for success.

LDS Family History Centers have most vital records and church records, births (through 1965 for most states); deaths; baptisms; marriages. They also have city directories from past years, and census records. There are usually people there who will guide you in your search. You don't have to be a member, it is open to anyone. You can find out if you have a Family History Center near you at www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/FHC.

Many local libraries have birth indexes, and a lot of other good resources, and some of the larger libraries have a staff that will do lookups, if you can't go there in person.

For locating someone in any state and town, the County Clerk's Office can direct you to the Register of Deeds and Mortgages, and you can look up a deed for the family home, or you can have someone in the Clerk's office search for you, and send a photocopy for a few bucks. It sometimes has some interesting information.

If it was a sale, the address where the original copies of the closing documents are sent, which would be the sellers' new or forwarding address, or the law firm or title company representing the sellers, who would also have some knowledge of them.

If it was a purchase, the address where they lived before the purchase, which is where other family members may be located, as well as the title company representing the purchasers, or the law firm representing them, which also may have represented them in other family matters.

From the Clerk of the Probate Court, which is also in the county, you can look for a Last Will & Testament. Every will that is processed, is filed in Probate Court. That will give all sorts of family information.

These are all public records, and anyone can have access to them. If you aren't living in the county where the person lived, title searchers are working there, who usually are willing to do a search for you.

You can search for law suits; criminal records; parking tickets; driving violations; parole violations; incarceration, etc.

Cemeteries are good resources, if you can go to the office yourself. Unfortunately, a lot of the smaller cemeteries don't have much of a staff, and it's difficult to get information, and you have to be persistent.

These are some tips for conducting a search on the Internet.

Post to every reunion registry you can find, and join an active mailing list. We reccommend the registry@yahoogroups.com. It is a large group, with lots of supportive members and resources. You can subscribe by going to Join List.

Social Security Death Records are in various places on the Internet. www.familysearch.com is the LDS website for the Mormon church, and does not require any subscription or membership. It also has birth; death; marriage; and baptism records; family pedigrees; and genealogies families have submitted.

If you can trace family ancestors, you can sometimes find a great aunt, uncle, cousin or grandparent, for whom you might get information or find an obituary, with survivorship information.

If you do find a Social Security Death Record for a birthfamily member, you can send $13.00 to the Social Security Administration for a copy of the original application, which will give you additional family information.

classmates.com has a database of people, categorized by the schools that they attended, during what years, etc. Some have personal profiles and pictures, but most are just names and dates, and places. Classmates requires a subscription to be able to send e-mail, but you can search for free.

ancestry.comand myfamily.comare also subscription sites, but you can access limited resources for free.

To avoid wading through page after page of websites that are in no way related to what you are trying to find, the search engines we reccommend are Yahoo.com or Google.com. When searching in Yahoo or Google, anything that is put in quotes, will only bring up websites with the words in exactly that order.

If all you have is your birthmother's maiden name or your birthfather's surname, and you know that person was born in 1945, they probably graduated from high school between 1962 and 1964. you could enter "40th high school reunion" add +"Los Angeles" or the city or state where the person lived, or gave birth, and add +Miller or the person's maiden name. So, it would look like this:

"40th high school reunion" +1963 +"Los Angeles" +Miller

or "class of '62" +Miller

be creative, and try different combinations.

Sometimes, less is better.

Miller +1945 in a search engine might bring up some websites that have a person with the surname Miller, born in 1945.

When looking for an adoptee or birthfamily member by birthdate, start with the date that you know, and if you get nothing, use month and year, and if still nothing, use just the year. Also, a year on either side.

10/01/1945 could also be 10/1/45 10/01/45 or October 1, 1945, or 01-Oct-1945, and a number of other ways. Try it all ways, then again with the word born in front of it like "born 10/1/45", etc.
Try the names frontward and backward Margaret Miller - Miller, Margaret. A lot of family genealogies on the Internet use the last name first. Try it with just a first initial. Try it with or without a middle name, or initial. It just depends upon how the person who put it on a web page spelled it out.

When looking for an obituary use "survived by" +Surname +Place +year of death.

"survived by" +Miller +"Los Angeles" +1995

Try it with the city or state first, then without, then without the year, etc.

If you have a surname, go to google.com and click on the Images tab, and put the surname in the search engine. It will bring up images on web pages containing that name. Look for any family resemblance, then look at the website to get an e-mail address to contact the person.

If you are unlucky and the date of birth you are searching coincides with a celebrity or some major event, bringing up page after page of websites to go through, you can eliminate those websites by entering a minus sign.

11/26/1965 -Elvis -Beatles -hurricane

lookupusa.com is a good free website to look up current names, addresses and telephone numbers.

infospace.com is another good free website to look up reverse contact information by phone number, address, etc.

If all the information you have is an address from a hospital or birth record, you can find out who currently lives at that address, and contact them to learn if the current resident purchased the home from a birthrelative, and ask for contact information. You can trace the chain of title for that address in the County Tax Assessors Office or the Register of Deeds and Mortgages, as stated above.

I hope that this information is helpful to you. If you have some search tips to share, please send them to the POD Registry to add to this page. We wish everyone success with your searches, and are here to help in any way that we can.

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