Looking for a birth father
Anita is pregnant with her first child. She has never known her father and was raised by her mother. Anita has always thought about tracing her father, but didn’t know how to go about it. Being pregnant has made the need to trace stronger.
Sadly Anita’s mother passed away some years ago and did not talk much about her father. Anita only knew his name and date of birth and that he had a sister in the UK. Anita’s father was of Dutch heritage.
Our ISS Branch in the Netherlands was able to trace Anita’s father, sadly he had died several years earlier. From his death certificate we were able to contact further extended family of the father, this had to be done discreetly and sensitively as the family were unaware of Anita’s birth. Letters were exchanged between Anita and her father’s family via ISS initially and once all involved felt comfortable contact became direct. Anita will be making a trip to the Netherlands next year with her new born son.
After adoption, searching for a birth mother
Jo is a 55 year old woman who resides in Melbourne. She was born in Canada in 1950 and was adopted soon after birth. She moved with her adoptive family to Australia when she was four years old.
Jo’s adoptive mother has recently deceased. After the death of her adoptive mother, Jo felt more able to start the search for her birth parents. She had wanted to search for her birth parents for some time however did not want to hurt her adoptive mother’s feelings.
Jo had had some conversations with her adoptive mother about her birth parents in the past. Jo’s adoptive mother told her the name of her birth mother and her approximate age. Jo’s adoptive mother also told her the name of the adoption agency in Canada through which the adoption was arranged.
ISS Australia was able to make a referral to ISS Canada who used their local knowledge to trace Jo’s birth mother via the adoption agency. ISS assisted in mediating this initial contact. Jo was overjoyed to be able to make contact with her 75 year old birth mother and found she also had three half siblings.
More information on Tracing a Family Member: