Finding an Adopted Child Online

By Dr. Brandon Colby MD, an expert in genetic testing, DNA analysis, and personalized medicine.

Birth parents and adoptees can locate one another in many ways online. This article is a valuable resource for birth parents and birth families who are struggling with finding an adopted child online.

How Birth Parents Can Find an Adopted Child

Many websites are available for birth parents and adoptees to connect.

⁠Adopted.com

This website offers support to birth parents and adoptees. Becoming members of the site means connecting with many people who are in your situation.

While many websites cater to adoptees, this one caters to birth parents. You will feel comforted and guided in your search to finding an adopted child online.

Adopted.com claims they have 991,266 profiles and continues to grow by thousands every single month.

⁠Adoption.com

This site has one of the most comprehensive reunion registries online. After searching the registries, many people join the adoption forum. The members of the forums share their stories and offer information on how to find an adopted child or birth parents, depending on your goals.

⁠Child Welfare Information Gateway

Childwelfare.gov has a Search & Reunion section that can help adoptees and birth family members connect. There are many resources and information on finding adoption records.

Steps to Finding an Adopted Child Online

If you’re just starting with your search, the following steps to finding an adopted child online may be able to help you.

Step #1: Check Adoption Records at the Adoption Agency

Courts usually seal adoption records once the process is finalized. However, birth parents may be able to get a court order to obtain them if they have just cause for it. With the court order,

birth parents may be able to obtain identifying information from the adoption agency that handled the process. This may include information for the adoptive parents or the adoptee.

When an adoption professional cannot disclose information about the adopted person or adoptive family. A confidential intermediary may need to be appointed to make contact with part of the adoption triad to establish mutual consent for a reunion.

Open adoptions are much easier when it comes to retrieving information. Usually, adoption records are open and available. This information can then be used to find the adopted child online.

Step #2: Search Adoption Reunion Registries

Search adoption reunion registries online with the date of birth of the adoptee. This adoptee search may bring up a lot of people since there are approximately 135,000 children adopted a year in the United States. It’s a start though and with additional information such as name or location, the adoption search could narrow down the results.

After someone is adopted, the original birth certificate is sealed and not accessible to the public. A new birth certificate is created for the child that may have a name that is different from the birth name.

There are also many groups on social media, particularly Facebook that can help you find adult adoptees. Of course, these communities are set up for people who are searching for their birth relatives, which can make it difficult for a birth mother or birth father to find their adopted child if that person isn’t searching for his/her biological parents.

Step #4: Use DNA in the Adoption Search

An autosomal DNA test, offered by sites like 23andMe and AncestryDNA can identify biological relatives with DNA matches. These sites have large databases with people’s DNA data in them. When people’s DNA data matches, they send that information to the users of the site. While they do not offer contact information, they do make it possible for users of the site to connect with one another through the site.

In addition to DNA matches with other people on the site, these DNA testing companies also provide medical information related to genetics. This can help identify what people are most at risk of when it comes to their health.

The DNA results can also shed light on family history, which can be highly valuable to adoptees. This is why people who are trying to find an adopted child online should be part of these DNA testing sites.

DNA and adoption go hand-in-hand. The more information that can be derived from DNA the easier it can be to find an adopted child online. While the databases of DNA data on sites like 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage (check out our ⁠MyHeritage Review), and others are large, their DNA tests are not as comprehensive as they could be - even though they cost just as much as those that test more of person’s genome.

Sequencing.com has one of the ⁠best DNA tests for adoptees and birth parents searching for them. The Ultimate DNA Test is comparable in price as other DNA testing companies provide, but it tests more DNA than they do. This leads to more genetic information related to:

Health
Wellness
Disease Risks
Ancestry
…and much more.

Sequencing.com offers much more when it comes to genetic testing because of their DNA app store, which is added to regularly.

The DNA app store also has apps specifically for those searching for biological relatives:

In addition to being able to use all of the apps in the ⁠DNA app store, Sequencing.com users can download their DNA raw data and upload it to other ancestry sites, such as Ancestry.com, 23andMe, MyHeritage, GEDMatch, and others.

You can learn how easy it is to download raw DNA data from sequencing.com here, and then how to upload the data to another site here. The benefit of this is that you can join those databases of people’s DNA even if you didn’t get your DNA test by them.

Finding an adopted child online can seem like an overwhelming undertaking, but many people have been successful with it. Since it can take a few weeks to receive DNA results, order a DNA test first.

Once you’ve ordered your DNA test, you can start the search online using the websites mentioned above. When you receive your results, you can move forward with DNA to bring you closer to finding your adopted child online.

Have questions about ⁠DNA and adoption? Contact us. We would be happy to help you.

About The Author

⁠Dr. Brandon Colby MD is a US physician specializing in the personalized prevention of disease through the use of genomic technologies. He’s an expert in genetic testing, genetic analysis, and precision medicine. Dr. Colby is also the Founder of Sequencing.com and the author of ⁠Outsmart Your Genes.

Dr. Colby holds an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, an MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, and a degree in Genetics with Honors from the University of Michigan. He is an Affiliate Specialist of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (⁠ACMG), an Associate of the American College of Preventive Medicine (⁠ACPM), and a member of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (⁠NSGC).