Using the Internet to find birth parents has become the most common method of reuniting adopted children with their birth families. The surge in open adoptions over the past 30 years has made the process of finding birth parents much easier. Since the advent of the Internet, an entire industry has sprung up to meet the growing demand.

Gathering Information
An important factor in the overall success of a birth parent search is the amount of information the adopted child has. In past decades, when closed adoptions were the norm, little if any information about birth parents was available to adopted children. Often, even if information was available, it was sealed by court order and kept from the adopted child.

Even in cases where little information is available, the Internet can be a big help. For example, if an adoptee knows nothing about his birth parents but knows where he was born, the Internet can be used to find all the hospitals and orphanages that were open in the area at the time of his birth. Local birth records can also narrow things down.

Birth certificates are commonly amended to reflect the adoptive parents' names upon the granting of an adoption decree. However, a record of the original birth certificate with the birth parents' names will be kept by the court, and sometimes by the adoptive parents themselves.

With the name of one or both birth parents and the place of birth, the Internet really kicks into overdrive. It is at this point that an adoptee can go in several different directions.

Conducting Your Search
Some states, including Illinois, have set up online adoption registries. These act as a clearinghouse of information for adopted children and birth parents. By registering with the site, parents and children who want to contact one another can be matched. This is the least-expensive and most direct option, but it's limited to a few participating states and won't help if either the child or the parents don't want to be contacted.

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