Finding contact information for birth mother.

December 25, 2004 4:51 PM

I've recently been given new information about my birth mother (i was adopted at the age of two). The information includes her first and last name, her social security number, and more. Using her name and the beauty of the interweb, i have found that she has married and is probably living in California. Is there any easy & reputable way to get a mailing address for the purpose of a brief "dear you" letter ?

I hesitate to use the charming websites that pop up on google (Find Anyone!!! Anywhere!!!) for various reasons. Free would be a good cost. I feel like with her social security number and name I should be able to track down at least an address through a DMV or somesuch, but nothing seems to be working yet.

posted by redsparkler to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

You could try one of these links to Public Records databases--good luck!

Also, try contacting an adoptees organization out there--they'll know how to get local info for the state, etc.
posted by amberglow at 5:03 PM on December 25, 2004

I always use The Ultimates dot com to look for people, especially if I know what state they're probably in.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 5:59 PM on December 25, 2004

Perhaps slightly off-topic, but the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (NAIC) website has a page on searching for birth relatives. It mentions registries that you could check (if you've not already done so) , and other search resources.
posted by WestCoaster at 9:17 PM on December 25, 2004

I've used urapi.com in the past to find addresses / car registrations / marriage/ divorce records based on name & state before. It was ~$15 for a couple hundred search credits.
posted by fourstar at 10:29 PM on December 25, 2004

Response by poster: Thank you very much. I'll spend some quality time with these links and see where they get me. In my head, i think it frustrates me that there's not some simple page where I can just plug in the name and get insta-results. Everything seems convoluted. Perhaps I'm just nervous at the prospect and taking out my insecurities on web sites.
posted by redsparkler at 6:35 PM on December 26, 2004