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Last Updated October 7, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!)<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Some time ago a friend who had been adopted as an infant asked for my help in finding their birth parents. After a good bit of sleuthing, I identified and politely messaged a person who, according to DNA results, was most likely a very close relative. <\/span><\/p>\n Expecting an enthusiastic response and a request for my friend\u2019s contact information, I was saddened to receive a message from this individual asking that I not contact them nor let my friend know of their existence. <\/span>As it turned out, this person had also been adopted at birth. Like my friend, they had enjoyed a happy childhood with loving parents, but were not at all curious about their biological family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, I respected their wishes. As a human being, I was happy that both this person and my friend had great parents and wonderful upbringings. As a genealogist, though, I was disappointed that I wasn\u2019t able to reunite a biological family. After all, that\u2019s what family historians do: We often work to reconstruct our ancestral families into units of two biological parents and their children, over and over \u2014 and over \u2014 again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When we learn or suspect that an ancestor was adopted, it\u2019s in our nature to pursue the identities of their biological parents. This can be particularly difficult when an adoption occurred prior to the mid-twentieth century, when laws and records were sparse and varied widely across the country. Fortunately, there are a few tactics that might help you in your search to find your ancestor\u2019s blood relatives prior to 1950.<\/span><\/p>\n Make Instant Discoveries in Your Family Tree Now Imagine adding your family tree to a simple website and getting hundreds of new family history discoveries instantly.<\/b><\/p>\n MyHeritage is offering 2 free weeks of access to their extensive collection of 20 billion historical records, as well as their matching technology that instantly connects you with new information about your ancestors<\/b>. Sign up using the link below to find out what you can uncover about your family. Discover New Genealogy Records Instantly<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Today, about <\/span>two percent of the United States population is adopted<\/span>, and at any given time another 100,000 children are waiting for their own \u201c<\/span>Gotcha Day<\/span>.\u201d <\/span>Although families have been taking non-biologically related children into their homes for all of history, adoption laws in the US only came into being in 1851 when Massachusetts passed the Adoption of Children Act.<\/span><\/p>\n Massachusetts\u2019 historic act was the first law to recognize adoption as a \u201csocial and legal process\u201d and ensure that adoptees were placed in \u201cfit and proper\u201d arrangements. In other words, it was the first law to protect the interests of adopted children rather than the adults who were involved<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n This approach continued throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, as organizations were formed with the explicit purpose of finding suitable permanent homes for children rather than placing them in orphanages for the long-term. The first adoption agencies appeared in the early 1900s, working on behalf of married couples seeking to adopt.<\/span><\/p>\n Prior to 1851, though, adoptions were largely informal arrangements, with few cases being managed through a legal process. In many cases, relatives or neighbors took orphaned children, or those who couldn\u2019t be cared for by their parents, into their homes. Whether out of responsibly, need or love, these arrangements often became permanent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If no one volunteered to assume care, children became wards of the local government, and were often bound through apprenticeship or indenture agreements with families who needed extra labor for farms, households, or businesses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With very few formal or legal procedures to record adoptions, it can be difficult to uncover such a relationship among ancestors in your tree prior to the early 1900s, by which time most states had followed Massachusetts\u2019 lead and enacted their own adoption laws. <\/span><\/p>\n 20 Billion Genealogy Records Are Free for 2 Weeks Get two full weeks of free access to more than 20 billion genealogy records right now. You\u2019ll also gain access to the MyHeritage discoveries tool that locates information about your ancestors automatically<\/b> when you upload or create a tree. What will you discover about your family\u2019s past?<\/p>\n Claim My Free Record Access Now<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n However, you may stumble across some clues in your family history research that point to a historic adoption situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Family lore<\/strong> \u2014 While some families chose (and still choose) to keep adoptions private, even from the adoptee, stories of children being adopted or given up for adoption may have filtered down through the generations.\u00a0<\/span>Census annotations<\/strong> \u2014 You might find a person listed as \u201cAD daughter\u201d or \u201cadopted\u201d in the relationship to head of household column. Additionally, a child may be listed as \u201cinmate\u201d within the household, as Isaac W. Gore and Emma I. Gore were annotated in the household of Andrew Griffith in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census of Greenup County, Kentucky:<\/span><\/p>\n Different last names<\/strong> \u2014 If a child appears in a census or other record as living in a household with a different name, they could be an illegitimate child, a child from a wife\u2019s previous marriage, or an adoptee. You should explore all of these avenues.<\/span>Notations in probate records or wills<\/strong> \u2014 Adopted children were often listed as such in a last will and testament (\u201cmy adopted son\u201d) or a legal record of heirs.<\/span>Guardianship or apprenticeship records<\/strong> \u2014 Although these documents aren\u2019t equivalent to adoption documents, an appointment of a guardian over minor children or an apprenticeship agreement could indicate such a relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes these clues themselves might offer leads to the names of a child\u2019s potential birth parents or provide direction as to where to look. For example, the names of suspected parents of an adoptee may be passed down through family stories or an adopted child may be listed in a will as \u201cthe child of my late sister Sarah.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Likewise, if a 12-year-old child suddenly shows up with a family in the 1860 census, you can look for a 2-year-old child with the same name in the 1850 records, hopefully living with a birth parent. The most likely suspects to investigate as birth parents will be deceased family members or neighbors. Once you\u2019ve exhausted those avenues, though, it\u2019s time to expand your search.<\/span><\/p>\n Adoptions occurring prior to the early- to mid-1900s definitely present challenges to a family historian. There is some good news, however. Prior to 1917, adoption records were not sealed and weren\u2019t considered confidential. In fact, most states didn\u2019t push for sealed adoption records until the 1940s. <\/span>This means that if records of your ancestor\u2019s adoption exist, you should be able to access them \u2014 if you can find them, that is. <\/span><\/p>\n Original birth certificates<\/strong><\/p>\n Most states began keeping birth records and issuing birth certificates by the first decades of the twentieth century. If a child was adopted, the state issued an amended birth certificate listing the adopted parents as the child\u2019s parents. This certificate became the document of record, and in most states, the original birth record was inaccessible, sometimes even by the adoptee. <\/span><\/p>\n Today, each state still maintains its own laws as to who can access an original birth certificate and what is required to gain access. Each state\u2019s access requirements are available <\/span>from the Child Welfare Information Gateway<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Orphan train records<\/strong><\/p>\n As attention shifted in the 1850s from the needs of adults to the welfare of orphaned or abandoned children, various orphanages and groups partnered with the newly-founded Children\u2019s Aid Society to relocate the children to suitable homes across the United States and Canada. From 1854 to 1929, the society transported an estimated 250,000 children to their new families via the railroad system, eventually becoming known as \u201corphan trains.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The majority of orphan train riders were from New York, and farming families in the Midwest took in the most children. However, riders originated from many other areas and ended up in 45 American states, as well as in Canada. <\/span><\/p>\n According to the <\/span>National Orphan Train Complex (NOTC) Museum and Research Center in Kansas<\/span>, there was no centralized record-keeping system of riders. Each organization that placed children on the train kept its own records, though. If you suspect your ancestor may have been a rider, you might check out these resources:<\/span><\/p>\n Orphans Placed in the New York Foundling Hospital and Children\u2019s Aid Society 1855 \u2013 1925 \u2014 This <\/span>Ancestry.com database<\/span> contains names and information of about 18,000 orphan train riders.<\/span>New York Historical Society \u2014 Many of the archived records from organizations placing orphan train riders are housed here, but many are restricted. For more information, email <\/span>[email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/span>. (There is a fee for contracted research).<\/span>National Orphan Train Complex and Orphan Train Heritage Society of America \u2014 The NOTC website offers several <\/span>first-person accounts from riders<\/span> and <\/span>contact information for numerous archives that might contain orphan records<\/span>. Fees for research may apply.<\/span><\/p>\n County court records<\/strong><\/p>\n Adoptions were sometimes recorded by county probate courts. In fact, many early probate court records are listed under \u201corphans\u2019 courts\u201d as the probate process originated from the need to protect orphaned children and their rights to a deceased family member\u2019s estate. <\/span><\/p>\n Two states (Maryland and Pennsylvania) still refer to their probate courts as orphans\u2019 courts, although the responsibilities have expanded far beyond protecting orphaned children.<\/span><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified the birthplace of an adopted ancestor, search for his or her name and the names of the adopted parents in the county\u2019s probate records, many of which are available online. Some collections are labeled as adoption records, such as these that are freely searchable on FamilySearch:<\/span><\/p>\n Coahoma County, Mississippi Index to Adoptions<\/span>Wood County, Ohio Adoption Final Record<\/span>Franklin County, Tennessee Adoptions and Apprenticed Children (see excerpt from this collection below)<\/span><\/p>\n Catholic church records<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Catholic church, the sacrament of baptism is administered soon after a child\u2019s birth. If an adoption occurred later, the original baptismal documents may contain information about the child\u2019s birth parents. Some Catholic baptism records are available online, but you could also consider contacting the Catholic churches in the area where your adopted ancestor was born to ask where you might find records from the appropriate timeframe.<\/span><\/p>\n Orphanage records<\/strong><\/p>\n Records and sources of additional information about several orphanages have been published on FamilySearch, Ancestry and other databases. To discover what\u2019s available, go to the database\u2019s catalog and search for the keyword \u201corphanage.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Results are sorted by geography, so you can easily narrow down your results. The images below from the <\/span>Montgomery County (Ohio) Children\u2019s Home records on FamilySearch<\/span> reveal a wealth of information about young Myrtle Durain, including her birth mother\u2019s name, her status as \u201cillegitimate,\u201d and the names of the family to whom she was indentured.<\/span><\/p>\n Adoption or children\u2019s aid agencies or maternity homes<\/strong><\/p>\n Depending on the timeframe and the laws of the state in which an adoption occurred, you may be able to request records of an adoption directly from the agency that handled a child\u2019s placement. Research which adoption agencies or women\u2019s maternity homes were in existence at the time of the birth through search engines, city directories, and newspapers, or contact the local historical society for assistance. It\u2019s possible that these records were transferred to a local archive when these organizations shut their doors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While documentation is always the gold standard when it comes to genealogical research, there\u2019s nothing more concrete than a close DNA match to prove a familial relationship to another person (remember that matches become less reliable beyond the fourth cousin range). <\/span><\/p>\n The Internet is <\/span>full of stories of adopted children who were reunited<\/span> with their birth parents and vice versa after submitting a commercial DNA kit. While a parent\/child relationship is obvious when it\u2019s the child or parent submitting their sample, determining the parentage of an ancestor several generations back can be a little more complicated. <\/span><\/p>\n Tools like <\/span>MyHeritage\u2019s Theory of Family Relativity<\/span> and <\/span>Ancestry\u2019s ThruLines<\/span> can help narrow down potential parents, but these suppositions should be thoroughly explored and backed up with documentation.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember my story about contacting a member of my friend\u2019s birth family? Even though we as family historians hope that a person we\u2019ve identified as being related to an adoptee will be thrilled that we\u2019ve found them, we have to understand that not everyone wants to learn about an adoption in their family \u2014 even if it occurred generations ago. Adoption and all of the events that lead to it and follow it are extremely emotional, and should be handled sensitively (<\/span>here are some suggested messages<\/span> to use when contacting a DNA match).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Above all, don\u2019t be discouraged or hurt if the person you contact regarding a historical adoption doesn\u2019t respond, or responds with anger. Instead, be polite, respect their wishes, and continue to gather research from other sources \u2014 like the ones we\u2019ve listed above. Remember, too, that a blood relationship isn\u2019t the only thing that makes a group of individuals a family! <\/span>Read this interesting article about what constitutes family in a family tree.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By Patricia Hartley, lifelong genealogist and regular contributor to Family History Daily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adopted Ancestor? Here\u2019s How to Find Their Biological Family Last Updated October 7, 2023 Ancestry 50% Off Gift Memberships for Black Friday (Gift to Anyone, Even Yourself!) Some time ago a friend who had been adopted as an infant asked for my help in finding their birth parents. After a good bit of sleuthing, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genealogy-guides","tag-db"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Finding the Biological Parents and Other Family Members of an Adopted Ancestor in Your Family Tree<\/h2>\n
A brief history of adoption in the United States<\/span><\/h3>\n
Clues to historic adoptions in family trees<\/span><\/h3>\n
Here are some clues that may reveal an adoption in a family tree:<\/h4>\n
![\"1860](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Adoption-1.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\nPre-1950s record collections to review when looking for records of adoption<\/span><\/h3>\n
Here are a few places to start looking for adoption records:<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"Excerpt](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Adoption-2.png\")
<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\n![\"Excerpt](\"http:\/\/www.whogenealogydna.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Adoption-3.png\")
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<\/picture><\/noscript><\/p>\nUsing DNA data to uncover adoptive parents<\/span><\/h3>\n
Sh<\/span>ould you reach out when you discover an adoption through genetic research?<\/span><\/h3>\n