NYBROOKLYN-L Archives

Archiver > NYBROOKLYN > 1999-06 > 0928786768


From: Elizabeth Connor <>
Subject: Re: [NYBROOKLYN-L] re: adoption
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 16:19:28 -0400


Sorry, here's more info. about the book:

AUTHOR: Kling, Tammy L.
TITLE:
Searching for a piece of my soul : how to find a missing
family member or loved one
PLACE:
Lincolnwood, Ill. :
PUBLISHER:
Contemporary Books,
YEAR:
1998
PUB TYPE:
Book
FORMAT:
x, 213 p. ; 21 cm.
ISBN:
0809230631 (pbk.)
SUBJECT:
Birthparents -- United States -- Identification. Adoptees --
United States -- Identification.

--On Monday, June 07, 1999, 4:11 PM -0400 Elizabeth Connor
<> wrote:

> I reviewed a book for Library Journal on this topic but perhaps it's not
> the one you remember:
>
> Library Journal, 1998 123(3):134
>
> Searching for a Piece of My Soul: How to Find a Missing Family Member or
> Loved One.
>
>
> This reasonably priced book provides useful information for adult
> adoptees interested in finding their birth parents and/or other missing
> relatives. The author discusses managing expectations and
> overcoming obstacles related to initiating such a search, and
> developing an action plan. Other insightful information includes several
> pages of Internet resources, sample letters, and classified ads
> for contacting birth relatives, changes in adoption information
> legislation, addresses of various adoption and search agencies, addresses
> of nationwide Family History Centers, state motor vehicle
> registration offices, and other related information. Sixteen pages are
> devoted to the text of the Rev. Thomas F. Brosnan's address to the 1996
> National Maternity and Adoption Conference. The
> book's narrative style, lack of index, and undocumented references
> limit its usefulness for ready-reference purposes, but the author's
> personal experience finding missing family members is
> inspiring. As with Richard S. Johnson's Find Anyone Fast (LJ 11/1/97),
> this is better suited for circulating collections.
>
> --Elizabeth Connor
>
> --On Saturday, June 05, 1999, 8:23 PM -0400 aj <>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I promised a few folks that I would look for a book that I read a
>> few years ago that had a very good tip for how to find an adoptees
>> family. Since I can't remember the name of the book I did a search for
>> it on the computer card catalog at the library. I didn't find it that
>> way so I went to the stacks and searched and still didn't find it. So I
>> then got two reference librarians to search their computer, while I
>> scanned Books in Print. Still nothing, I'm sorry to say.
>> For anyone who's interested it was a non-fiction book by a woman
>> private investigator (I think). I think she worked in the south, perhaps
>> Kentucky or Tennessee.
>> The information from it that is relevant to searching for an
>> adoptee's family is this. Determine the date of the adoption and the
>> court where it took place. This is often the point where one loses track
>> of an adoptee because the records are sealed afterward.
>> When you think you have the correct date and court, get a copy of
>> the docket for that day or days. This is, I think, public info in all
>> places, and should contain the names of anyone heard in court that day.
>> I've done years worth of this searching but without having had to
>> use this record, so I don't know all of what it contains. In any manner
>> you can, rule out the folks that appeared in court that day for anything
>> other than adoption. Search newspaper files and try to get info from the
>> court as possible, about the cases that are public info. Probably only
>> the adoption cases will be completely unavailable to you. When you have
>> ruled out most of the names because they were in court because of a
>> will, etc. then the remaining names are your possibles.
>> It might be a big job to track down a lot of people whom you
>> couldn't rule out, but you're a 'genealogist' and know about tracking
>> people. ;-) And besides, you now have a much shorter list than before.
>> I hope this method helps someone. While I was doing my searches I
>> read everything I could find on the subject and this is the only real
>> tip I came across that helped one to bridge the gap created when an
>> adoptee goes into a courthouse as 'Smith' and comes out 'Jones.'
>> If anyone wants to, please let me know if I can help with anything
>> else. Oh, and please comment on this too. We might all learn methods for
>> eliminating people from dockets, etc.
>> best,
>> Al Johnson
>>

This thread: