DNA testing can help you find members of your biological family. To find a relative using DNA, you both need to have taken a DNA test with the same company. This is where you have to get a bit lucky--but even if a person you're trying to find hasn't taken the test, a close relative of theirs may have. The good news is that DNA testing is becoming increasingly popular; there are currently 10 million people (and counting) in the AncestryDNA® database. https://support.ancestry.c

Undated photo of a Native American, "Baby Boy Quince," at the Protestant Home for Babies in New Orleans, Louisiana. (The language in this is atrocious.) "Needs a Home - Seven-month-old Quince, a full-blooded American Indian and a resident of the Protestant Home for Babies in New Orleans, can't seem to get adopted. Miss Sally Matlock, executive director of the home, holds the tot for a news cameraman in hopes that publicity may find the boy a home." The Indian Child Welfare Ac

Between 1854 and 1929, a quarter million abandoned babies and “street rats” (as the older children were referred to by police) left slums in New York, Boston, and other coastal cities aboard trains, headed for new lives in the country. Their experiences are recounted at the new National Orphan Train Complex in Concordia, Kansas, as well as in the new documentary, Placing Out, both sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council. When the trains stopped, the children were paraded f

The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade. by Ann Fessler Order this book! http://www.thegirlswhowentaway.com/ #AnnFessler #adoption #history #roevwade #oralhistory

For information regarding adoptions, a person is required to file with the Clerk what is formally called a Motion (or Petition) for Disclosure. This motion should include any and all information relating to the person needing the information from the suit. Information needed, if known to the petitioner, to perform a proper search of the suit record shall include, but not limited to: 1. Possible date of the Judgment of Adoption 2. Adoptive parents’ full names and dates of birt

The Baby Scoop Era was a period in history starting after the end of World War II and ending in the early 1970s, characterized by an increased rate of pre-marital pregnancies over the preceding period, along with a higher rate of newborn adoption. The years between 1945 and 1973 are now known as the Baby Scoop Era. At its peak in 1970, experts estimate, roughly 80 percent of infants born to single mothers were relinquished. From 1945 to 1973, it is estimated that up to 4 mill

The battle over opening up birth certificates for adults adopted as children ended in a stalemate Tuesday at the State Capitol. The Senate Committee on Judiciary A rejected legislation to ease access to family medical histories for adoptees. The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Louisiana Family Forum praised an amended form of House Bill 1028 as continuing to protect birth parents’ confidentiality. Critics said they liked the original version of the bill: Birt