Adoption Related Resources

Support groups are located across the United States for adult adoptees, their family members, and anyone impacted by adoption.  To best try to locate a support group in your area, contact the American Adoption Congress or Concerned United Birthparents.  Please see my blogroll on the left-hand column of my blog to read the perspectives of other individuals impacted by adoption.

Support Groups:
Adult Adoptees Advocating for Change
Concerned United Birthparents
Origins USA
Partners of Adoptees
Sunflower Birthmom Support Group

Other Links:
The Mothers's Project


There are a variety of search-and-reunion related resources both in an adoptee's birth state and on the web.  In addition to reunion registries and Search Angels, an adoptee's birth state may have an intermediary or other system in place that facilitates reunions.  To see an overview of some of the processes in each state, click here.

Please note that I have compiled these lists to best help those who are searching.  An entity or individual being listed here does not affiliate me with them.  Please use all resources and contacts with your own disgretion.  To submit a link or to report a broken link on this page, please email me at declassifiedadoptee@gmail.com.  

National/International Resources and Registries:
ISRR
Adoption.com
G's Adoption Registry
The Adoption Database
Soaring Angels Group
The ALMA Society

Agency or State-Based Resources and Registries:
(CA) Find My Family 
The Colorado Triad Connection
Georgia Adoption Reunion Registry
Illinois State Reunion Registry
(KY) KARR 
(MI) MARE 
(PA) PARR 
(SC) SCARR 
(WI) ICARE 
EH Babes (Kurtz Agency)

Individual Search Angels:
Search Angels are individuals who seek to help reunite family members separated by adoption, free of charge.  Search Angels should only charge for any fees they need to pay along the way (e.g. to request records, or gas/mileage if they have to drive to the library), not for their actual services.  If you email a Search Angel, please make sure to put "adoption" or "reunion" in the subject line of your email.

Priscilla Sharp: can do searches throughout the U.S. if you have a name.  Can work possibly with Non-ID information, mainly in PA, NE, NJ, and NY.

Melissa Mullins:  melmullins68@aol.com does searches in Texas.

Patricia Neal:  or2tx2002@yahoo.com does searches in Texas and throughout the U.S.

Other Links:
RegDay.
Mary Lynn Fuller Search Guide
Shea's Search Series


Adoptee Rights falls under the larger umbrella of the "Identity Rights Movement."  The Identity Rights Movement seeks to end practices in institutions that hide identifying information from the individuals that the information belongs to and to restore the information to the adults from whom it was taken from as children.  This includes the information regarding the biology and history of adoptees, donor offspring, and fostered children.  Adoptee Rights specifically refers to the rights of all adult adoptees born within a given country to access their birth documentation issued by that country or state, the same exact way anyone else who is not adopted does.  All states make some provision for adult adoptees to access identifying records, however, only six states in the U.S. treat adult adoptees equally to the non-adopted in this regard when they turn 18.  One additional state gives equal treatment to adoptees who are over the age of 25.  The Adoptee Rights movement is over sixty years old in the United States.  Get involved!

For a list of state-by-state laws, click here.

For Amanda's Guide on Adoptee Rights, click here.

National Organizations:
Adoptee Rights Coalition (website)
Adoptee Rights Coalition (Facebook)
Adoptee Rights Coalition (Yahoo Mailing List)
Adult Adoptees Advocating for Change (adoptee support)
American Adoption Congress
Bastard Nation
Green Ribbon Campaign for Open Records

National Organizations Supporting Adoptee Rights:
Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute
Child Welfare League of America
North American Council on Adoptable Children
Concerned United Birthparents
Adoptees of Color
The ALMA Society
Origins-USA

State Based Organizations:
California 
Connecticut 
Connecticut (Facebook Page) 
Florida 
Hawaii 
Illinois (IL Open)
Illinois (Adoption Reform IL)
Indiana (Indiana Open)
Indiana/Kentucky (K.A.A.R.E)
Kentucky (K.A.R.) 
Louisiana 
Maine 
Michigan (Yahoo group)
Mississippi Petition 
Missouri Adoptee Rights Movement
Missouri Adoptee Rights Movement (Facebook Page) 
Missouri Open Records Effort (MORE) (Facebook Group)
New England States (Yahoo Group) 
New Jersey 
New York 
New York (Facebook)
North Carolina 
Ohio (Myspace) 
Oregon
Pennsylvania (PAR) 
Pennsylvania (PAR) (Facebook)
Rhode Island (Facebook)
South Carolina 
South Dakota 
Tennessee
Tennessee Adoptee Rights (Facebook) 
Texas (Facebook) 
Washington (WA-CARE) (Facebook)
Wisconsin (facebook group) 



Adoption Reform, which often includes Adoptee Rights, seeks to change unethical and unreasonable laws pertaining to adoption in an effort to put the focus of adoption on the needs of the children being served, rather on the overall industry.

International and Transracial Adoption Activists


Other Links:
CWLA on the Indian Adoption Projects
National Indian Child Welfare Association
Indian Child Welfare Act


The Family Preservation Movement believes that many families around the globe can avoid adoptions separation and loss of original identity, culture, language, original country, and heritage if we seek to provide children and families with support, work together for women's rights, engage in sustainability projects, work to lessen taboos against vulnerable groups, and move toward better policies.  Family Preservation Activists generally support preservation for families that can be kept in-tact and adoption for children who truly need it.

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