I would like to share with everyone how I found my client’s birth family. First of all, I must preface by saying that I locate hundreds of birth parents each year, and each one usually takes no more that 30 days to complete. However, this one, took exactly 4 months to complete. Today is exactly 4 months since I was hired on this case. The client has spent many years trying to locate his birth father and hired others who were unsuccessful and had given up.
On June 28th, 2009 I received an email from a gentleman in Georgia who was desperately trying to find his birth father or the relatives of his birth father. The client provided me with what he believed to be the first name, middle initial and last name of his birth father. The client also said that his birth father lived in San Bernardino County, California in the 1950’s. That is usually more information than I normally receive from a client, so I figured this search would be fairly simple. Little did I know what I was getting into.
The first part of my investigation was to run the name in a public records database. I subscribe to several, so I ran the name in all of them. As it turns out, this name was fairly common, so I had to go to the next step. I ran the name in Ancestry.com’s database. If you know how to use Ancestry.com, it’s a great resource and well worth the subscription fee. I was able to find a possible match, but it had the middle name listed as the first name. The data came from a 1958 San Bernardino County Voter Registration index. It had the name and an old address. It also had the name of another person with the same address.
I ran the other person’s name (which was probably the birth father’s mother) in a public records database, and nothing came up. I spent the next three months searching through online databases, property records and even death indexes, but I came up empty. In this time, I contacted several people with the same or similar name to my client’s birth father and none of them were the right one. I was very frustrated. I usually don’t take these cases personal, but this one I was determined to find my client’s birth family no matter how long it took.
A couple of weeks ago, my client, bless his heart, emailed me additional information, that he found out his birth father had a brother that at one time lived in Ridgecrest, California. My client provided me the name, which was also very common.
I again searched the all public records databases for this name and came up empty. I was puzzled that the name was not listed, especially in a small community like Ridgecrest, Ca.
All of sudden, it came to me yesterday! Why don’t I check Classmates.com for that name. So I researched the names of high schools in Ridgecrest, Ca. I found one, Burroughs High School. So I went on the Classmates.com website and looked up that high school. Lo and behold, I found him there! He had a photo of “then” and “now,” but no other information. Remember, this person is the possible brother of my client’s father. So, I’m not even sure I have the right person.
So now what do I do? I called Burroughs High School and spoke with their records department. They provided me the name and phone number of the contact person who organized the class of 1951 reunion that was last held in 1976. I figure at this point, the phone number is very old and I would have to locate this person to obtain information on someone I wasn’t even sure is the right person I was looking for.
As it turns out, the phone number was still good. She even knew the classmate! She also said his brother had the same name of the birth father I was looking for! Too good to be true?
I left my number with this woman for her to give to her former classmate. This morning he called. He confirmed that his brother is the person we were looking for. Unfortunately, the birth father died over 30 years ago. However, the brother was so glad to hear that his nephew was looking for his birth family. I gave my client’s phone number to his birth uncle and now they have been reunited.
Here is an excerpt from what my client wrote me regarding my efforts:
“You delivered as promised my Friend. And I am grateful for your efforts. You pushed ahead when others have quit…Thank you so much for the gift you provided to me. As you know, my birth father died in the 70’s, and my half sister lives in Washington State. I sent her an email a few minutes ago. I spoke to the daughter of my birth father’s brother a few minutes ago. My hands are shaking.”
I will be glad to share more of these stories with everyone as time goes by. Of course, I will not provide my clients or their family members names in these stories so I can protect their privacy.
Thank you for your support.
Jay Rosenzweig
BirthParentFinder.com
