Document - Based Search
When a child is adopted from China, the orphanage, or agency responsible for facilitating such adoptions provides the adoptive parents with numerous documents to finalize the adoption including a Certificate of Abandonment, health reports, immunization records, a finding ad, and sometimes a birth certificate. In addition, the child’s orphanage file contains additional documents such as the Finder’s Report, and sometimes a Police Report. The file may also contain hospital records if the child was ill shortly before or after arriving at the orphanage. Adoptive parents typically have the original documents translated into English, by one or more individuals, and then look for clues in the documents that could point to the identity of the child’s biological parents. This type of search is called a document-based search since it is driven by the legal documents provided to the adoptive family during the adoption process.
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OUR GUIDE TO LAUNCHING YOUR PERSONAL BIRTH FAMILY SEARCH
There are at least three types of searches that could be used to locate the members of one’s Chinese birth family and all have been used successfully to one degree or another.
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We recommend you conduct your search for birth family members in the following order:
Genetic Genealogy - Based Search
Beginning around the year 2006, and continuing for several years, a series of companies were founded or began offering to test an individual’s DNA and then provide them information about their heritage. The results of each DNA test were stored in the company’s database and the companies developed tools to compare the DNA profiles of individuals in the database looking to match those who shared DNA because they had common ancestors. Occasionally, a Chinese adoptive would be matched to a close relative, typically a sibling, however in most cases the adoptee would only find distant cousins (e.g., a 5th cousin or more distant relationship), since the vast majority of DNA profiles in the databases were typically from individuals of European ancestry. However, over time, as the size of the databases grew, and especially after Chinese birth parents began working with organizations to contribute their DNA to these DNA databases, additional close relatives were found, sometimes even a parent-child relationship was discovered. Then as traditional genealogical research methods were combined with the genetic information in the DNA databases even more rapid progress was made in locating the birth parents of Chinese adoptees. This type of search is called a genetic genealogy-based search.
Document - Based Search
When a child is adopted from China, the orphanage, or agency responsible for facilitating such adoptions provides the adoptive parents with numerous documents to finalize the adoption including a Certificate of Abandonment, health reports, immunization records, a finding ad, and sometimes a birth certificate. In addition, the child’s orphanage file contains additional documents such as the Finder’s Report, and sometimes a Police Report. The file may also contain hospital records if the child was ill shortly before or after arriving at the orphanage. Adoptive parents typically have the original documents translated into English, by one or more individuals, and then look for clues in the documents that could point to the identity of the child’s biological parents. This type of search is called a document-based search since it is driven by the legal documents provided to the adoptive family during the adoption process.
Media - Based Search
Often, when the documents provided by the orphanage provide little useful information, adoptive parents and Chinese adoptees conduct a media-based search. They attempt to enlist the aid of the media in China to facilitate the search. This includes contacting the local newspaper, radio, or TV station in the area where the child was found and publish information about the child to let the local residents, and hopefully the members of the birth family, know that the Chinese adoptee or adoptive parents want to reconnect with the child’s birth family. Since it is often difficult to contact the local media in China because of language barriers and knowledge of how to do so, many adoptees, adoptive parents, or a surrogate would often place posters in the area where the child was reportedly found, in hopes someone would contact the adoptee with useful information about the birth family. With the rise of social media, Chinese adoptees or their adoptive parents began posting announcements on Chinese Internet sites and blogs indicating they are searching for the members of their birth parents.
We recommend that every Chinese adoptee or adoptive parent begin with a genetic genealogy-based search since it easy, inexpensive, and over time has the greatest probability of success. After the Chinese adoptee’s DNA sample has been submitted for testing it will take approximately six weeks before they receive their results and their DNA profile is added to the commercial DNA database. During this time, the adoptee or adoptive parents could begin a document-based search. Only after the first two types of searches have proven unsuccessful, should an adoptee consider launching a media-based search.