Pennsylvania Adoption Search and Education

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PA Adoption Search & Education
Main Menu

Scroll down to "The Pages" to see links to the search pages of this site.

Did you see PAFind and Adoption Forum on CNN Headline News?
Click here for more info on the groups!

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Did you see the misguided
PA House Bill 2056
to reform adoption law in PA?

Poorly written, dangerously mistaken terminology, and giving away the rights of people who have already lost enough.

"Oh boy, adopted adults! If this meek bill goes thru, you can have your birth certificate if Mommy and Daddy say it's ok."
(Oh, and here's a quarter for ice cream, now get lost.)

Golly, thanks!

click for miserable details

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"Wait, don't seal those records! I'm not gonna be a baby forever!"

"We can't go on treating these people as babies. They are adults with minds of their own, and we need to respect their autonomy. It is unrealistic to expect that they tolerate this."
Dr. Alex McWhinnie, senior research fellow, Dept. of Social Work, University of Dundee, who believes individuals conceived through donor insemination feel "almost identical" to adopted people, and it that it is unacceptable that parental information is not available.

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The Pages:

PAFind EMAIL LIST - a FREE e-mail list of PA searchers helping one another.

STATE REGISTRIES AND POLITICS - Why neither are helping PA searchers much.

RELINQUISHMENT PAPERS - Like to see an example of PA relinquishment papers?

YOUR OLD AGENCY - Backtrack here for possible help in search.

YOUR COUNTY OF FINALIZATION - County specific info. You need to know this and it may not be where you think.

THE DECREE - Adoptee is adopted in the county of finalization, records now sealed. Want to see a decree?

FORMAL PETITION - Learn how some counties make it a bit harder.

NON-ID - Learn what it is, and how to ask for it.

WAIVERS OF CONFIDENTIALITY - File them! BIRTHPARENTS- DON'T MISS THIS BIG KEY!

PA ADOPTION LAW - the easy version or the actual wording.

ADOPTION GROUPS - known in PA that handle search, support, legislation or all three.

SEARCH BASICS - In addition to this whole menu, here's a list of ways to search and try to be found.

PHONE CALL AND LETTER IDEAS - When you are close to making that respectful first contact.

List of many PA Searches.

BIRTHFATHER LINKS - There's just not enough info out there for that disenfranchised guy you might know.

SEARCH SUCKS! I NEED A *@$#! BREAK! - Take one, pal.

HIRING A SEARCHER OR PI? - Caveat emptor! Read some parameters and cautions.

THE UNIFORM ADOPTION ACT or UAA - Learn more about "The Evil Act". NEW, MORE AMUSING!

PERSONAL ESSAY - on adoption with info for all sides of the triad.

JASPER & KATEY'S PAGE - you're interested in adoption - if you love animals, check this out.

© 1997-present. Click for disclaimer and additional copyright information.
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WEBRINGS AND AWARDS
CITY PAPER 1999 - Coverage of adoption search, law and the UAA in PA.

CITY PAPER 2001 - What do "safe haven laws" for surrendering newborns have to do with adoption and identity rights?

CITY PAPER 2005 - Why improving the slow and feeble state reunion registry is not the answer, and doesn't restore rights.

Daily Record in York covers the state registries and Shawn Wright's search.

PA Search Links - Genealogy, History, Youth Agencies & all kinds of PA stuff

Registries, Stories, Info and general adoption (non-PA) pages - links to varied good places.

Know someone who may be helped by this site?
Click here to email them about it.
(This works okay if your default email client is installed properly.)
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Want info for NJ or DE? Click here.

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Click here for your daily dose of Pennsylvania adoption news!

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Handy Day-of-the-Week Calculator!

What day of the week were YOU born on?
Or, what day of the week did that event happen?

Find out here! This Gregorian calculator works into the future to the year 4000 and back to 1583.

Enter the numeric Month (1-12):

Enter the numeric Day of that month (1-31):

Enter the Year (eg. 1970):

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Did you know Linda Hurd? Can you handle a birthmom's story about what the shame and secrecy of adoption in Pennsylvania can do? If so, read on here.

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PA had SB859 which would have seriously modified adoption law! Though this bill did not make it out to a floor vote, you should know about it because it may be coming back to haunt us in some revised fashion, and with record restriction portions written with the probable input of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. Study up now!

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Looking for info on the NEW Adoption Message Board of Pennsylvania? It is "in the works" and the URL will be posted here soon! All the searches have been saved and will be on the new site when it is completed. Inside the Web closed so we had to move!

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Online copies of adoptee original birth certificates? Suuuure! Click here anyways.

The law must be consonant with life. It cannot and should not ignore broad historical currents of history. Mankind is possessed of no greater urge than to try to understand the age-old questions: "Who am I ?" and "Why am I?" Even now the sands and ashes of the continents are being sifted to find where we made our first steps as man. Religions of mankind often include ancestor worship in one way or another. For many the future is blind without sight of the past. Those emotions and anxieties that generate our thirst to know the past are not superficial and whimsical. They are real and they are "good cause" under the law of man and God."
Honorable Wade Weatherford, S. Carolina Circuit Court Judge

WILL PROPOSED ADOPTION LEGISLATION MAKE YOU A CRIMINAL FOR SEARCHING? THANKFULLY PENNSYLVANIA BLEW THIS BILL OFF, BUT IT'S MAKING THE ROUNDS IN OTHER STATES SO STAY ALERT!

The UAA (Uniform Adoption Act) is a bill which will make it CRIMINAL for you to search for your biological family members (A FELONY!) and make it criminal for anyone to help you. Additionally, it allows a relinquishing birthmother a whopping eight days post-birth to change her mind. (It's dead now in PA but was sponsored by Ed Krebs (Lebanon County) and was identified as House Bill 654.) This piece of legislation is promoted by the NCFA around the country, and luckily it is being roundly rejected by states so far. Still, read up on it because parts of it get copied or referred to, and it could move to any state at anytime.The info is here.
This nonsense does not have to be our

"Pennsylvania - Where we're so proud of our heritage, we lock a chunk of it up. Sheesh!"

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Looking for a page hit counter? Too depressing. There's ones on the individual pages if you care.
OK, here. The number of people who had to search is TOO MANY. Happy now? :-)

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