Ok so I'm trying to find my husbands biological father. He was adopted at birth. Only info I have is the man's name and that he lived in MA at some point.
Besides just googling it, or trying Facebook,
Do you guys know of anywhere i can possibly search for this man without paying out the wa-zoo??
I've tried Facebook, whitepages, blah blah blah :)
EDIT:
As to the reasons for doing this.
WHen my husband was 16 he was contacted by his birth mother's mom (so his biological grandmother)
She sent a letter about his family. She gave his father's name and where she last knew him to live. She also said that his biological father used to send her checks for my husband. So I know to some extent that this man cares or cared about the child he put up for adoption. My husband's adopted father passed away about 2 years ago, and over the last few weeks he keeps talking about his birth father. So I figured I'd give it a shot.
My FIL is HUGE into genealogy (sp?) If you'd like you can send me a personal message with the name, any other info you may have, age, state of birth whatever. And I bet you he can find him. He's AWESOME at this stuff. And it would be free! :)
not sure if they have it in the states, but years and years ago I used the Salvation Army People finders.... successfully to find my two oldest siblings who I knew very little about. Craigslist has a personals section for free, most local papers have this for a small fee. A girlfriend I had was located through the local hydro company, but her sister had much more info than a name. If the name is at all unuasual, try looking for his other offspring? Or searching the fathers parents, other siblings..
Birth-marriage-divorce-death records are public information. If you can find out what city, county and state he lived in at the time of your hubby's birth you may get some info. Also property tax records are public information, so if he owns property there will be a record on that.
Many high schools have copies of yearbooks in the reference section of the local public library. If you can find him in a yearbook, maybe the alumni association or reunion planning commitee will have a current address for him.
I would approach him through a 3rd party. Maybe a friend from high school could talk to him, first. Does he know he has a son? He may not know, be prepared he might welcome you with open arms --he may not want to see you.
My dad did the same thing. His biological father left his mom when my dad was just a baby. My grandmother would not give my dad any information, other than his name. She would not even tell him what state or town they were married in! She was obviously hurt by him. Years and years into the search (oh and my dad became a police officer so he had access to additional information) he slowly found more information. One day he received a call from another man. Long story short - it was his half brother He was doing the same thing. They found out they also had a half sister (yup, sounds like he was a player), which wanted nothing to do with either of them. My dad tracked down his bio father's social security number, but ran into road blocks. He then put in for survivor benefits to see if he could find out if he was alive. He had not heard back about anything. Sadly, my dad passed away unexpectedly last year. I now have all his documents and one day will try to do the search.
I told you all this because, if you start with all the sites and suggestions people have given you, there just might be someone out there looking for your husband!
A thought I just had could be Ancestry.com or my heritage.com. They send you alerts if there is a close match from someone else putting in the same information. You can send private e-mails (just like here) to contact people if you have some kind of match. So start putting the name out there. You just never know. Ask on this site for people in MA - Does anyone know so in so...
Good luck!
I went through the adoption agency that helped place us. It was the Catholic one formerly known as Daughters of Charity, I think? Any way, they took my name and contact information and said that if the other party (my birth parents) inquired as to my whereabouts, and if both parties expressed an interest in reuniting, they would help facilitate that, which they did. It was very nice because that way a trained social worker was able to pre-screen both parties intent on the reunion and make sure it would be a good situation over all.
Maybe try linkedin (I think that's what it's called) - it's a professional networking site. Is there a possibility he was going to school when he lived in MA? That would mean you could try classmates.com, look for graduating class info, etc. You could even try looking at the local newspaper archives.
Another option would be to contact the birth mother's family to try to get more info.
Good luck with your search.
I can't remember the support group name, but several years ago I found a forum for adoptees. They were a great group of people and several of them were seasoned on the various ways to find birth parents. Once I had my birth parents names, I actually went to Ancestry.com and looked up their names and found a lot of information there. But the folks on the forum were the greatest help, one of them actually used some of their resources to get me addresses for my father. Both my birth parents were well established and there was plenty of public data on them so with their names and good idea where they were currently living it wasn't hard
Try to find a friend or a friend of a friend who is a debt collector. They have access to databases you wouldn't believe (and we wonder how they find us!) See if they want to earn $20... tell them to get you the info on this man based on what info you know (even your husbands name will help!)... just offer it to them as 'side work'. My fiance was a debt collector forever ago and we got $ taken off our rent because he helped our landlord find a previous tenant that owed him 6K. Good luck :)
Or try 411.com ...
Have you checked www.pipl.com ? When looking for people it searches a lot more in depth than google!
Good luck!
try zabasearch.com Ive had luck with that before for locating old friends.
Many states have adoption registries that you can put your name in to be found or if the father already registerd than you would get his contact information. Try calling an adoption agency in the state your husband was born and ask them if they are aware of such a registry in that state. I would also go to the last known state and look up any court records or county accessors (sorry, can't spell today) records because they are usually public record and you can find out contact information that way as well. Good Luck
ssdi which is free on ancestry.com. it is the social security death index.
type name, hometown, etc..
also on intelius.com you can type it and see known relatives
Email people/shows like Troy Dunn (the locator), Oprah, Dr. Phil, etc. It is a long shot, but you never know, and all it takes is a few minutes of your time.
Hospital records may have more info - adoption records too
A private detective - may be costly though
Relatives?
Family tree search online?
There are some online search services that are not too expensive (maybe $20-30 to use once of for 1 day). If you do your other research first that may help you get a current address.
Why are you trying to do this? There's a really good chance that this person doesn't want to be found, so be aware that you could be opening a giant can of worms!
If you have your husband's birth certificate and adoption records you can contact the adoption agency or attorney and see if they are able to share some info. Honestly- probably not b/c if it was a "sealed" adoption, the bio parents did not want to be found.
Call the courthouse where the adoption took place and make an official request for the records. I have seen my mother's adoption papers and there is very little information included b/c her biological mother didn't want to keep her children and didn't want them finding her later.
MA is a good-sized state and you may need to hire and private investigator to get in touch with this person, but really really think about it first.
Is your husband aware that you're doing this? If yes, great, but if not, he needs to be the one to do the searching. I have an adopted daughter and I would never search for her birth family without her consent. If she gets to that point in her life when she feels she wants to search, I will help her if she asks, but only if she asks.
