Adoption Book List: Search and Reunion

This is a partial list of resources available for persons interested in searching for birth relatives. If you know of any other resoures, please let us know by emailing the webmaster.

The Adoption Life Cycle, by Elinor B. Rosenberg, M.D.

Impact of adoption on all adoption members throughout their lives.

The Adoption Reader: Birth Mothers, Adoptive Mothers and Adopted Daughters Tell Their Stories, by Susan Wadia-Ellis

Thirty women explore adoption, illustrating many faces of adoption and issues surrounding it; works include well known writers and activists.

Adoption Reunions: A Book for Adoptees, Birth Parents, and Adoptive Families, by Michelle McColm

Fears, joys, hopes, dreams and anguish that accompany reunions. Exploration of roots and reunion, process of search and how to support the reunion process.

Adoption Searchbook, by Mary Jo Rillera

Techniques for search.

Adoption Searches Made Easier, by Joseph Culligan

Adoption and the Family, by Miriam Reitz and Kenneth Watson

The Adoption Triangle, by Arthur D. Sorosky, Annette Baran, and Reuben Pannor

Understanding of adoption as a lifelong process for adoption members.

Being Adopted: The Lifelong Search for Self, by David M. Brodzinsky, Ph.D., Marshall D. Schnechter, M.D., and Robin Marantz

A demonstration of adoption as a lifelong impact that adoption has on an individual.

Birthbond: Reunions Between Birth Parents and Adoptees, by Judith Gediman and Linda Brown

Impact of reunions on the lives of all members of adoption.

Birth Mothers: Women Who Have Relinquished Babies for Adoption Tell Their Stories, by Merry B. Jones

Birth mothers share their experiences of giving birth, adoption planning, raising subsequent children, searching and being found.

Birthright: Guide to Search and Reunion for Adoptees, Birth Parents, and Adoptive Parents, by Jean A.S. Strauss

First book details information about searching. Second book deals with reunions and the effect reunions have on adoption members.

By Order of Adoption, by Jean A. Downie

Can be ordered directly from Mrs. Downie at (813) 639-8346

Courageous Blessing, by Carol Demuth

Dear Mom, I Found My Birthmother, by Susan Moses

Faint Trails: An Introduction to the Fundamentals of Adult Adoptee-Birth Parent Reunification Searches, by Hal Aigner

Giving Away Simone: A Memoir, by Jan L. Waldron

Memoirs of one woman’s adoption story and subsequent reunions with that child years later.

Great Adoptee Searchbook, by Jean Straus

Halfway Home: Contact and Reunion Guidelines, by Lynn-Claire Davis

Lost and Found: The Adoption Experience, by Betty Jean Lifton, Ph.D.

Adoptee’s search for birth family.

Lifeline: Action Guide to Adoption Search, by Virgil L. Klunder

Search book.

A Man and His Mother, by Tim Green

A story about a former professional football player in search for his birth mother.

Making Contact, by Dirck W. Brown and Susan Miller-Havens

The Other Mother, by Carol Schaefer

Out of the Shadows: Birth Father’s Stories, by Mary Martin Mason

Birth fathers tell their stories ~ men who become fathers who never got the opportunity to be one.

Saying Good-Bye to a Baby: Birth Parents Guide to Loss and Grief in Adoption, by Patricia Roles

Loss and grief experiences by birth parents.

Search - A Handbook for Adoptees and Birthparents, 2nd Edition, by Jayne Askin with Molly Davis

Search Aftermath & Adjustments, by Pat Sanders & Nancy Sitterly

The Search Consultant's Handbook, by Patricia Sanders

Search Options - Choices for Triad Members Contemplating or Conductiong A Search, by Patricia Sanders and Susan Miller-Havens

Searching for Birth Relatives, by Debra G Smith, ACSW

Searching in California, by Pat Sanders

Searching in Florida, by Diane C Robie

Searching in Illinois, by Gayle Beckstead & Mary Lou Kozub

Searching in Indiana, by Mickey Dimon Carty

Searching in New York, by Kate Burke

Searching for a Past: Adopted Adult’s Unique Process of Finding Identity, by Jayne Schooler

Guide to understanding the search and reunion process.

Secret-Sharing With Loved Ones: Personal Stories Of Telling Children and Others, by Marsha Riben and Mary Anne Cohen, eds.

Shadow Train: A Journey Between Relinquishment and Reunion, by Patricia E. Taylor

Building a relationship after years to separation.

Sibling Reunions, by Randolph W. Severson

Synchronicity and Reunion: The Genetic Connection of Adoptees and Birthparents, by LaVonne Harper Stiffler

Telling Your Children & Others, by Mary Anne Cohen & Marsha Riben

Tracing Missing Persons: An Introduction to Agencies, Methods and Sources in England and Wales, by Colin D. Rogers

The U.S.A. Search Resources Directory, by Jone Carlson

Where Are My Birth Parents? A Guide for Teenage Adoptees, by Karen Gravelle and Susan Fischer

Where to Write For Vital Records: Births, Death, Marriages & Divorces. Nat'l Ctr for Health Stats Staff, by Ed by Klaudia Cox.

Whose Child? by Kasey Hamner

Lifelong issues of adoptions from an adoptee’s perspective.

You, Too, Can Find Anybody, by Joseph Culligan

A reference manual providing various sources nationwide to assist with the search process (updated and revised yearly). NOTE: This author provides other search books.