Hitting a Brick Wall


If you have had no luck with the more conventional and private methods to locate your birth family member, you might consider taking your search out to the general public. There are several ways to accomplish this task.

  • Place an ad in a Newspaper

Place an ad to appear in the personal section of a newspaper near the birthday of the adoptee. Your ad could read something like this:

4-28-1964 – Does this date mean anything to you? It is my birth date. I am a female born in Loveland, Texas on this date and am currently seeking my birth family. Please contact me at: P.O. Box 1980, Tyler, Texas if you have any pertinent information for me.


Provide minimal details to allow the person responding to provide you with corroborating details to verify a match. Protect your identity from possible scammers or crackpots by not providing your home address or phone number.

  • Contact local media and try to interest them in your search for birth family.

Try to interest your local newspaper in doing a story on your search. Here is an example of the type of article that might result. In addition to trying to interest the local media in publicizing your search, some television shows do search and reunion episodes. While this may not appeal to everyone, if other efforts to find your birth family member have failed, it is something to consider.

  • Scour the old neighborhood.

For an adoptee, you may know where your birth parent resided when you were born. Locate neighbors and find out what they know. Certain databases provide the people who live in a neighborhood, and indicate how long they have lived there. This method could be more effective after you have a name, but it is possible for it to work without a name as well.

This link provides some useful suggestions if your search hits a standstill. It has some very good ideas including reexamining all the information that you have been able to gather.

However, if you have exhausted all the means at your disposal, it may be time to “call in the big guns,” namely a private investigator.

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Credits: Jan Baker