X X X X X FAQ http://adoptionsearching.com
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X ALT.ADOPTION.SEARCHING FAQ & RESOURCES
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1. ALT.ADOPTION.SEARCHING
1.1 FORWARD
1.2 GENERAL PURPOSE OF ALT.ADOPTION.SEARCHING
1.3 USNET AS A PUBLIC BIRTH INDEX
1.4 ABOUT POSTINGS
1.5 LOW BUDGET BRUTE FORCE SEARCH STRATEGY
1.6 REGISTRIES
1.7 ADOPTEES - MAKE YOUSELF EASY TO FIND
1.8 SECURITY
1.9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
2. SEARCHING USENET
2.1 HOW TO SEARCH IN ELECTRONIC FORM
2.2 ORGANIZED DIRECTORIES
2.3 DATES ARE A HORRIBLE MESS
2.4 SEARCH CRITERION MAMAGEMENT
2.5 HOW TO SEARCH THE NEWSGROUP ARCHIVES
2.6 LIST OF ADOPTION RELATED NEWSGROUPS
2.7 KEYWORDS AND PHRASES
2.8 MY SOLUTION TO THE DATE PROBLEM
3. SEARCH RESOURCES
3.1 GENERAL SEARCH TOOLS
3.1.1 PEOPLE LOOKUP
3.1.2 SEARCH ENGINES
3.1.3 TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES
3.1.4 CRIMINAL RECORDS
3.1.5 MILITARY RECORDS
3.1.6 SOCIAL SECURITY & DEATH RELATED
3.1.7 PROFESSIONALS
3.1.7.1 SEARCH DATABASES
3.1.7.2 SEARCHERS BY STATE
3.2 REGISTRIES AND RESOURCES
3.2.1 ON LINE REGISTRIES AND RESOURCES
3.2.2 OFF LINE REGISTRIES AND RESOURCES
3.3 SUP****T GROUPS AND LISTSERVERS
3.4 BY LOCATION
3.4.ALL ALL STATES
3.4.CAN CANADA
3.4.PA PENNSYLVANIA
3.4.NYC NEW YORK (CITY)
3.4.TX TEXAS
3.4.TX.1 TEXAS SEARCH SITES
3.4.TX.2 TEXAS SEARCHERS
3.4.TX.3 TEXAS SUP****T GROUPS
3.4.LIB STATE LIBRARIES
4. OPENING RECORDS
4.1 LETTER TO REQUEST MEDICAL RECORDS
4.2 BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND DEATH CERTIFICATES IN ITALY
4.3 STATE LAWS – OPENING RECORDS
4.4 MAKING CONTACT
5. ADOPTION INFORMATION ORGANIZATION
5.1 STATE BIRTH CERTIFICATE NUMBERS
5.2 WHAT STATES CHANGED WHAT INFORMATION
5.3 MANY STATE LAWS
6. FEELINGS
7. THE WORLD WIDE REGISTRY
7.1 WORLD WIDE REGISTRY SEARCH ENGINE
7.2 ABOUT THE WORLD WIDE REGISTRY
8. POLITICAL ACTION
9. TEXAS ADOPTIONS
9.1 YOU GAVE UP A CHILD IN TEXAS
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X 1.1 FORWARD
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Those touched by adoption have a special bond. It is my feeling that
the lost information should be free and in that spirit I created the
World Wide Registry and this newsgroup.
news:alt.adoption.searching
http://adoptionsearching.com
David T. Gray
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X 1.2 GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE ALT.ADOPTION.SEARCHING
NEWSGROUP
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The primary purpose to provide a separate friendly place for adoption
related searching, self-help, search-help, assistance and rebuilding
the public birth index.
If you don't know how to access the newsgroups, contact your internet
provider - they all do it differently.
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X 1.3 USNET AS A PUBLIC BIRTH INDEX
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http://adoptionsearching.com/dejaform.html
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X 1.4 ABOUT POSTINGS
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The postings to his newsgroup are nothing more than fancy emails. After
these "fancy emails" appear in this newsgroup, they disappear after 5
or 10 days. However, they are not gone forever, as they travel to the
10,000+ news servers across the planet the postings are collected and
stored by Universities and assorted search engines and thereby becoming
a large public archive.
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X 1.5 LOW BUDGET BRUTE FORCE SEARCH STRATEGY
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1. Sign-up for a free special purpose email address.
2. Sign-up with any Registry that is free.
3. Get on mailing lists.
You can maintain a degree of confidentiality by using the email address
instead of your real name.
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X CONSEQUENCES OF THE LOW BUDGET STRATEGY
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1. You are contacted by of helpers.
2. You get lots of junk email.
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X 1.6 REGISTRIES
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In the case of a likely match some registries like our World Wide
Registry provide the contact information on-line, others, require you
to contact them directly. Some will want to sell you the information,
some may ask for contributions, others, will give you the information
and their assistance, all they require is ‘smile’. If an organization
is a non-profit organization, that means they don’t make a profit, that
doesn’t mean they don’t collect money. I suspect that most of online
websites and searchers are non-profit, whether or not they have an
official IRS non-profit designation. My own feeling is that ‘anything-
goes’ as long as the information is free.
In most cases we all share the ‘common bond’, so if you have ‘money’,
spread-it around. Always remember, the basic rule of the internet, ‘if
someone tries to sell you something, somebody else will give it free.’
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X 1.7 ADOPTEES - MAKE YOUSELF EASY TO FIND
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The adoptees are the most aggressive with their personal information.
Seventy percent of the people registered with the World Wide Registry
are adoptees and I expect this to be true of Registries generally. The
birth parents are more reserved (for obvious reasons) and prefer watch.
The moral of the story is, if you are an adoptee, make yourself easy to
find.
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X 1.8 SECURITY
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As the internet has evolved, ‘vested interests’ have created a climate
of fear, ‘virus - virus - virus - nobody is safe’. Who would want to
visit an insecure site? Of course their site is secure. Get the
picture?
If you buy-into this histeria you will be artifically limiting your
possibilities. Generally speaking the internet is the most secure place
you can be. I have been downloading programs for twenty years, visiting
the insecure websites and have yet to encounter a ‘deadly virus’.
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X 1.9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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The information contained herein was assembled from a number of
sources. I want to thank Pat Zimmer mailto:paz89@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
for
supplying much of the information. Pat found her Son, Manning, he was
born on 12/06/68 in CT. Found in Phoenix, AZ on 03/19/99 First Contact
via Telephone for 1-1/2 Hrs. on 03/20/99.
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X 2.1 HOW TO SEARCH IN ELECTRONIC FORM
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When using any search engine always use lower-case. The birth date is
the most im****tant piece of data mainly because it is the most reliable
piece of information, then the state and city where the birth occurred.
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X 2.1.1 ORGANIZED DIRECTORIES
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In America Online they have a member directory where people list their
birth dates and you can search it, so send them an email and ask if you
are related. Other services have similar directories.
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X 2.1.2 AOL 4.0
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Click "People" (Top right side of screen)
Click "Search AOL Member Directory"
Click "Advanced Search" (Right next to the words "Quick Search", right
above the first block to type in)
Fill in the DOB, and remember, type it in every way you can think
of, i.e.
Many information sources on the internet have "people directories", so
find out what format the date is-in and search-it accordingly.
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X 2.3 DATES ARE A HORRIBLE MESS
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Dates are a BIG problem. In the United States there are many widely
used date formats, like 1/5/67 (D/M/YY) or 01/5/67 or 1/5/1967 or
1967/1/5 or 1967/01/05 or January 5, 67 or January 5, '67 or January 5,
1967 or Jan. 5 '67 or Jan. 5, 1967 ..etc. In other countries 5/1/67 is
used, note the month and day are reversed. We as humans, can usually
sort this out, but computers have problems.
Computers are nothing more than very fast idiots. They will only find
what you ask for. If you ask for 5/10/67 you will miss 05/10/67,
5/10/1967 etc. So you have to submit separate searches for the
alternative date formats or incor****ate them into a long "OR" statement
(these formats vary between search engines).
Like: 5/10/67 OR 05/10/67..
Like: 5/10/67 | 05/10/67 | 5/10/1967..
Like: 5/10/67 05/10/67.. This is an implied "OR" but in some search
engines it's an implied "AND", you have to read the instructions.
Like: (1/5/67 OR 01/5/67 OR 1/5/1967 OR 1967/1/5 OR 1967/01/05 OR
"january 5, 67" OR "january 5 '67" OR "january 5, 1967" OR "jan. 5
'67" OR "jan. 5, 1967")
Note: I used lowercase. Phrases have quotes around them and I added
parentheses - most search engines allow these groupings.
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X 2.4 SEARCH CRITERION MAMAGEMENT
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Make a text file with the Windows Notepad.exe and save it on your
desktop, then construct your search criteria in Notepad and copy it
into the various search engines. This makes it easy to modify and you
can make different versions.
In case of "people directories" the date format is standardized - this
makes things easier.
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X 2.5 HOW TO SEARCH THE NEWSGROUP ARCHIVES
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In the adoption related newsgroups, anything referring to the birth
date might be im****tant.
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X 2.6 LIST OF ADOPTION RELATED NEWSGROUPS
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alt.adoption
alt.adoption.searching
alt.adoption.issues
alt.birthright (I used this for search postings in 1997 & 1998)
soc.adoption.adoptees
You can add these to your list of possible dates with the appropriate
OR's.
Like: AND (alt.adoption OR alt.adoption.searching OR
alt.adoption.issues OR alt.birthright OR soc.adoption.adoptees)
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X 2.7 KEYWORDS AND PHRASES
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adoption
adoptee
search
searching
looking for
birth
birth date
born
child
birth mom
bmom
genealogy
iso - in search of
WorldWide - these are search keywords I use for
the World Wide Registry
..WorldWide
...WorldWide
..WorldWide
...WorldWide
These keywords can be added to the list search terms.
Like: AND (adoption OR adoptee OR search OR searching OR "looking for"
OR birth OR "birth date" OR born OR child OR "birth mom" OR bmom OR
genealogy OR iso WorldWide OR .WorldWide OR ..WorldWide OR .WorldWide
OR ..WorldWide)
**OUR SEARCH CRITERION BECOMES
(1/5/67 OR 01/5/67 OR 1/5/1967 OR 1967/1/5 OR 1967/01/05 OR "January 5,
67" OR "January 5 '67" OR "January 5, 1967" OR "Jan. 5 '67" OR "Jan. 5,
1967") AND (alt.adoption OR alt.adoption.searching OR
alt.adoption.issues OR alt.birthright OR soc.adoption.adoptees) AND
(adoption OR adoptee OR search OR searching OR "looking for" OR birth
OR "birth date" OR born OR child OR "birth mom" OR bmom OR genealogy OR
iso OR WorldWide OR .WorldWide OR ..WorldWide OR .WorldWide OR
...WorldWide)
This is the basic idea of how to construct a targeted search -
unfortunately this is too complicated for most of the search engines to
handle - but, you can break-it apart and add your own
criteria and do-it in pieces.
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X 2.8 MY SOLUTION TO THE DATE PROBLEM
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In dealing with the date problem I used the 1967/01/05 format in the
World Wide Registry. The nice thing about this format is that the
postings will sort in order ie. first by year, then month and day
YYYY/MM/DD
1967/01/04
1967/01/05
1967/01/06
1967/02/01
1977/01/01
this is helpful for contacting other people born about the same day.
For redundancy I also included the date in the 1/5/67 format in the
postings and made the Subject line of the posting as follows:
1976/01/10 USA TX Austin ...WorldWide Registry
19YY/MM/DD 1234 12 123etc ...WorldWide Registry
If you would like my registration form to compose your posting
automatically go to http://adoptionsearching.com/form.html
.
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