You want to know who you are and what your family history roots are. You are adopted and want to find an easier way to make a family history tree. This is a beginning slide of how to begin your search.

1. GenealoGy when you’re
Adopted
Maternal
Great-Grandfather
Tom Paulette
By Yvette Porter Moore

2. Why do a birth Search?
• Curious About ones Identity
• Medical History
• The Need to Connect with Birth Relatives
• Genealogical Research

3. How to get started
• Call or write to the agency that handled your adoption.
• Give the agency authorization to allow members of your
birth family to contact you and request non-identifying
information.
• Register with the world’s largest reunion registry.
(International Soundex Reunion Registry.)
• Join an online search support group to find searching
tips.

4. Adoption registries
ALMA (Adoption Liberty Movement Association) P.O. Box
727, Radio City Station, New York, NY 10101-0727
(www.almasociety.org)
www.adoptiondatabase.org
www.adopteeconnect.com
Registry.adoption.com
Reunion-registries.adoption.com

5. How to get started (cont.)
• Check Birth Index
• Search the internet for online reunion registries. Join Social
network groups such as Facebook and MySpace.
• Take out a personal ad in local newspapers to let birth relative
know that you are searching for them.
• Browse local and online telephone directories after you’ve
obtained birth family member’s names.
• View Death records from the Social Security index and look at
marriage records at your local courthouse.

6. Types of documents
Agency Records: State or Private Agency?
Birth Certificate or Amended Birth Certificate
Hospital Records
Census Records
Guardianships
Me before I was adopted.

7. Types of Documents (cont.)
 Name Changes
 Newspapers (Birth Announcements)
 Probate Records
 State Legislative Records

8. Brick Walls & Road Blocks
Closed Adoptions vs. Open Adoptions
Sealed Records
Unknown Information (Birth Name & Birth Parents Names)
Last Names of Birthmothers Changed through marriage.
Expensive to Hire Professional Searcher

9. Professional
Help
Association of Professional Genealogists,
American Adoption Congress
 National Adoption Information Clearinghouse

10. Adoptive & Birth
Family Tree
Harrison Porter
Jesse E Mitchell
Adoptive Biological
Grandfather Grandfather
Walter J. Porter Johnny R Mitchell Sr
Adoptive Father Biological Father
Helen M Bunn Frances M Paulette
Adoptive Grandmother Biological
Yvette M Porter Grandmother
Charles I Peters Felipe Espinoza Jr.
Adoptive Biological
Grandfather Betty Mae Peters Ermalinda Espinoza Grandfather
Adoptive Mother Biological Mother
Agnes Mae Cully Esther Munoz
Adoptive Biological
Grandmother Grandmother
www.FamilyTreeTemplates.net

11. My Heritage
Example
Agnes Cully Harrison Porter
Charles I Peters Helen M Bunn
Grandmother Grandfather
Grandfather Grandmother
Betty Mae Peters Walter J. Porter
Mother Father
Phillip Yvette M Porter David Mitchell
Brady Marshall Herlinda
ME
Sibling Porter Mitchell Sibling
Miranda Johnny R
Brady Sibling Sibling Mitchell
Sibling Sibling
Ermalinda Espinoza Johnny Roy Mitchell, Sr.
Birth Mother Birth Father
Esther Munoz Felipe Espinoza Jr. Frances Mae Paulette Jesse Edgar. Mitchell
Birth Grandmother Birth Grandfather Birth Grandmother Birth Grandfather
www.FamilyTreeTemplates.net

12. My Heritage
Example of
Forms Marshall
Sibling Felipe &
Sibling Esther
Agnes & Grandparents
Charles Sibling
Grandparents
Walter
Betty
Father
Mother
Yvette
Johnny R. Mitchell
Ermalinda Espinoza Birth father
Birth mother
www.FamilyTreeTemplates.net

13. Birth & Adoption Wheel
Examples
www.amfor.net/genealogy.html

15. Adopted Family Pictures
My paternal great grandmother Maternal Grandmother: Maternal Grandfather
My mom Betty Mae Wilson, my mom Agnes M Cully Charles Peters
Betty M Peters Betty and grandmother Agnes
Great Uncle Raymond
Marian Anderson and Cully and Great Aunt Paternal Grandmother
Jeanette Arnold Maternal great My father
My grandmother Agnes Helen Bunn Thompson
grandmother and her Walter J. Porter
Cully sisters.

16. Birth Family Pictures
Grandparents
Jesse E Mitchell & Frances Paulette
Father Paternal Great
Johnny Roy Mitchell, Sr. Grandfather Tom Paulette
Uncles Rev. Jesse E. Mitchell Mother E. Espinoza
Aunt Debra Mitchell
Grandfather