Genealogy: Special Topics
A guide to researching special topics in genealogy & family history.
Researching Adopted Ancestors
Adoption has existed in one form or another for much of human history. Whether formal or informal, adoptions can play a significant role in shaping one’s family tree. This section will provide an overview of the history of adoption in the United States and some of the resources available to research adopted ancestors.
- Genealogy: Researching Adopted Ancestors (June 16, 2022)BPL online genealogy class (video)
Pre-1851
Adoptions were often informal, and biological parents generally retained legal rights over their children regardless of where they lived. Orphaned children or children whose biological parents could not care for them could be bound out as indentured servants or be sent to live with relatives, friends, or neighbors. Such arrangements were not always recorded.
Legal adoptions were processed through the state legislature. Records of name changes for children can be an indicator that the child was adopted, and the adoption may be noted in the record.
1851: Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act
First modern adoption law to be passed in the U.S. It transferred the responsibility for legal adoptions to probate courts, gave authority to a judge to determine if the adoption was “fit and proper,” terminated the legal rights of biological parents whose children were adopted, established the right of adopted children to inherit from their adoptive parents, and established the requirement that children age 14 and over had to consent to the adoption. This law was soon copied by other states.
1854-1929: Orphan Trains
About 250,000 children were taken on trains from East Coast cities to be placed with families throughout the rest of the U.S. and Canada. Many of the children were homeless, whose parents had either died or were unable/unwilling to care for them. Some children sent on Orphan Trains were not true orphans, but had been placed in orphanages by their biological parents due to financial or other hardship.
1917: Minnesota Adoption Act
Requires an investigation prior to placing an adopted child into a new home, and established the requirement that adoption records be kept confidential. Minnesota is the first state to pass such law.
1948: First Recorded Transracial Adoption
In Minnesota, the first recorded adoption of an African-American child by a white family takes place.
1994: U.S. Multiethnic Placement Act
The first federal law related to race in adoption, prohibits adoption agencies that receive federal funds from denying adoptions due solely to race. Amended in 1996 to prohibit the consideration of race as a factor when placing children for adoption or foster care.
1998: Oregon Ballot Measure 58
This ballot measure allowed adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. After being stalled by several failed legal challenges, the measure took effect in June of 2000 and is still in effect.
2000: U.S. Child Citizenship Act
Established the automatic granting of citizenship to foreign-born adopted and biological children of U.S. citizens upon their arrival in the United States.
- Adoption History in BriefFrom the University of Oregon's Adoption History Project
- History of Adoption Practices in the United StatesFrom childwelfare.gov
Join an online community focused on adoption research
- Other people doing the same kind of research may have advice or be able to help
- Register on an adoption reunion registry
- Some states have their own and there are several private ones
- Consider the time period the adoption may have occurred; it may have been informal
- Research your ancestor’s adoptive parents
- They may be related in some way or have a shared heritage with the biological parents
- Research the history of where your adopted ancestor was from, especially if there were any children’s charities or orphanages active in the area
- Look at every kind of record you can find, even ones that don’t have an obvious connection to adoption (see next tab)
- Consider using DNA testing along with traditional research
- Take multiple tests and have other relatives take tests as well
- Reach out to experts including adoption search coordinators, state and judicial archivists, and Registers of Deeds and/or Probate
- Make sure you know the applicable laws relating to adoption records in the area you are researching and what you have the right to request
Records in which an adoption may be noted or indicated
- Cemetery records- burial records may include detailed information about the family of the deceased
- Census records- may indicate adoption in relation to head of household column (1880 onwards)
- Church records- may be noted in baptism record and include information about biological parents
- Family papers- including letters, diaries, etc…
- Immigration records- for children adopted internationally
- Institutional records- including orphanages, foundling and other hospitals, and charitable organizations
- Military records- may be noted if the adoption took place during active military service
- Name change books- records of names changed in courts, early books will not note the reason for a name change, later books note if it was changed due to an adoption
- Newspapers- including announcements of children available for adoption and probate court announcements of formal adoptions
- Probate records- including wills, guardianship records, trust records, and other estate records
- Published genealogies- may be noted in a person’s individual entry
- Vital records- may be noted on birth record, particularly if child was adopted at or shortly after birth
Online Resources
- American Ancestors This link opens in a new windowContains many databases of public records and other online reference material to aid those researching genealogical information in the New England region.
Only available in Central Library.
No remote access. - Ancestry Library Edition This link opens in a new windowProvided by ProQuest and MyFamily.com, this genealogical collection covers U.S. and the U.K. census, vital, church, court, and immigration records, as well as record collections from Canada and other areas. It contains more than 4,000 databases, 1.5 billion names, as well as over 1,000 historical maps. Coverage:1300-present
No remote access. - ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowArchiveGrid includes over three million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
- Adopted Ancestor? Here’s How to Find Their Biological FamilyFrom Family History Daily
- AdoptionAn index of related sources from Cyndi's List
- Adoption records and genealogyFrom FindMyPast.com
- American Ancestors Digital Library & ArchivesContains selected digitized materials from the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society's Research Library
- Finding Adoption and Orphanage RecordsFrom Ancestry.com
- National Orphan Train Complex Museum & Research CenterDedicated to the preservation of the stories and artifacts of those who were part of the Orphan Train Movement from 1854-1929
- United States Adoption ResearchFrom FamilySearch.org
- Mass.gov: Access to adoption recordsFrom Massachusetts Probate and Family Courts
- Mass.gov: Get access to historic adoption recordsFrom the Massachusetts Court Archives
- Researching Your Family’s History at the Massachusetts Archives: AdoptionFrom the Massachusetts State Archives
- Search & ReunionFrom ChildWelfare.gov
- State Programs & RegistriesFrom Research Etc., Inc.
Books at the BPL
American Baby by ISBN: 9780735224681Publication Date: 2021-01-26The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to relinquish, and their search to find each other .
American Experience: The Orphan Trains by Call Number: Streaming Video via KanopyPublication Date: 1995In 1853, 10,000 homeless children roamed New York City streets. Young minister Charles Loring Brace founded the Children's Aid Society, sending orphans west to begin new lives with farm families. Until 1929, Brace's Society and other charities sent more than 150,000 neglected children by train to 47 states. Most were treated kindly and formed loving bonds with new parents. Hear the remarkable stories of the ORPHAN TRAIN CHILDREN.
Family Matters by Call Number: HV875.55 .C38 1998ISBN: 9780674796683Publication Date: 1998-04-08This work looks at the history of adoption in American society and reveals how the practice and attitudes about it have evolved from colonial days to the 1990s.
Kinship by Design by Call Number: 362.734 H551ISBN: 9780226327594Publication Date: 2008-12-01What constitutes a family? Tracing the dramatic evolution of Americans' answer to this question over the past century, Kinship by Design provides the fullest account to date of modern adoption's history.
The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America by Call Number: HV985 .H65 1994xISBN: 9780803272651Publication Date: 1994-02-01From 185 to 193 America witnessed a unique emigration and resettlement of at least 250,000 children and several thousand adults, primarily from the East Coast to the West. This 'placing out,' an attempt to find homes for the urban poor, was best known by the 'orphan trains' that carried the children.
Orphan Trains: The Story of Charles Loring Brace and the Children He Saved and Failed by Call Number: HV985 .O36 2001ISBN: 9780395841730Publication Date: 2001-02-08With the creation of the Children's Aid Society in 1853, Charles Loring Brace provided homeless youngsters with shelter, education, and, for many, a new family out west. The family matching process was haphazard, to say the least: at town meetings, farming families took their pick of the orphan train riders. Some youngsters, such as James Brady, who became governor of Alaska, found loving homes, while others, such as Charley Miller, who shot two boys on a train in Wyoming, saw no end to their misery.
West by Orphan Train by Call Number: Streaming Video via HooplaPublication Date: 2014It seems incomprehensible that there was a time in America's not-so-distant past when nearly a quarter of a million children from East Coast orphanages were loaded on trains and sent west, where they were presented "for the picking." These children were taken from a sometimes-rough existence to unfamiliar rural settings during an era that lasted from 1854 to 1929.
Do Right by Me: Learning to Raise Black Children in White Spaces by Call Number: On OrderISBN: 9781439919958Publication Date: 2020-11-27This book orients parents and communities of black children, including white adoptive parents, to the particular challenges and inequalities race brings to childhood. The authors present research, insight, and their own experience to guide parents to challenges related to education, health, safety, self-esteem, and community building.
A War Born Family: African American Adoption in the Wake of the Korean War by Call Number: HV875.64 .G73 2020ISBN: 9781479872329Publication Date: 2020-01-28Drawing on extensive research in black newspapers and magazines, interviews with African American soldiers, and case notes about African American adoptive families, A War Born Family demonstrates how the Cold War and the struggle for civil rights led child welfare agencies to reevaluate African American men and women as suitable adoptive parents, advancing the cause of Korean transnational adoption.
The End of International Adoption?: An Unraveling Reproductive Market and the Politics of Healthy Babies by Call Number: HV875.55 .F4625 2019ISBN: 9780813599687Publication Date: 2019-06-28Since 2004, the number of international adoptions in the United States has declined by more than seventy percent. In The End of International Adoption? Estye Fenton studies parents in the United States who adopted internationally in the past decade during this shift. She investigates the experiences of a cohort of adoptive mothers who were forced to negotiate their desire to be parents in the context of a growing societal awareness of international adoption as a flawed reproductive marketplace.
Children of Reunion: Vietnamese Adoptions and the Politics of Family Migrations by Call Number: HV875.5 .V37 2017ISBN: 9781469630908Publication Date: 2017-02-20As Allison Varzally details in this book, a desire to redeem defeat in Vietnam, faith in the nuclear family, and commitment to capitalism guided American efforts on behalf of Vietnamese youths. By tracing the stories of Vietnamese migrants, however, Varzally reveals that while many had accepted separations as a painful strategy for survival in the midst of war, most sought, and some eventually found, reunion with their kin.
Invisible Asians: Korean American Adoptees, Asian American Experiences, and Racial Exceptionalism by Call Number: HV875.64 .P36 2016ISBN: 9780813570679Publication Date: 2016-03-18The first Korean adoptees were powerful symbols of American superiority in the Cold War; as Korean adoption continued, adoptees' visibility as Asians faded as they became a geopolitical success story--all-American children in loving white families. In Invisible Asians , Kim Park Nelson analyzes the processes by which Korean American adoptees' have been rendered racially invisible, and how that invisibility facilitates their treatment as exceptional subjects within the context of American race relations and in government policies.
To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of International Adoption by Call Number: HV875.58.K6 O3 2015ISBN: 9780804791984Publication Date: 2015-06-17Focusing on the legal, social, and political systems at work, this book shows how the growth of Korean adoption from the 1950s to the 1980s occurred within the context of the neocolonial U.S.-Korea relationship, and was facilitated by crucial congruencies in American and Korean racial thought, government policies, and nationalisms. It also argues that the international adoption industry played an important but unappreciated part in the so-called Korean "economic miracle."
The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam by Call Number: DS559.8 .C53S23 2010ISBN: 9780807042410Publication Date: 2010-04-01Describes Operation Babylift in which thousands of Vietnamese children were evacuated by the United States before the fall of Saigon, and examines how it affected the lives of the children who were adopted by American families.
Inside Transracial Adoption by Call Number: HV875.64 .S74 2000ISBN: 9780944934241Publication Date: 2000-11-01Acknowledging white identity issues for transracial adopters and demonstrating predictable milestones in the journey toward adulthood for transracially-adopted infants, preschoolers, school-age children, teens and young adults, Inside Transracial Adoption offers provocative information, valuable resources and practical tools to support families in fostering the development of racial identity of children of color and in the strengthening of family connections.
The Lost Daughters of China: Abandoned Girls, Their Journey to America and the Search for A Missing Past by Call Number: HV1317 .E93 2000ISBN: 9781585420261Publication Date: 2000-05-08Today Karin Evans is the mother of Kelly, a thriving Chinese-American toddler. But two years ago, her daughter was one of the hundreds of thousands of infant girls abandoned in orphanages all over China. The story of how Kelly came to be there is rooted deep in China's history, in an ancient political, economic, and cultural preference for baby boys that began in the time of Confucius and was still going strong when China's notorious one-child policy was introduced in the 1980s.Through extensive research combined with the moving account of bringing Kelly home, Evans investigates the conditions that engendered generations of abandoned girls in China and a legacy of lost women.
- U.S. Government Resources @ the BPLIncludes links to documents freely available online
List of Persons Whose Names Have Been Changed in Massachusetts, 1780-1892 by Call Number: SOC SCI REF F63 .A5 1972ISBN: 9780806304984Publication Date: 1972-01-01Earlier edition available online.
The Ultimate Search Book: Worldwide Adoption, Genealogy, & Other Search Secrets by Call Number: SOC SCI REF HV875 .U38 2011ISBN: 9780806355153Publication Date: 2011-01-01
