A librarian and authority on genealogical research offers advice and encouragement to those who are eager to uncover their family history in this guidebook. Getting started, research techniques, interviewing tips, and effective use of the library and Internet are all discussed in detail in this book that is ideal for beginners and novices. The benefits and importance of genealogical research are also explored. Also included is a discussion on how a person’s own identity is linked to their ancestors, and knowledge of forebears can contribute to a sense of security and family pride that is missing in many mobile and disjointed modern families. Showing how a soundly researched family history can also enhance an individual’s understanding of war, hardship, and larger historical events, this work grants insight into the personality traits and health issues of one’s descendants.

From the Dust Jacket: This is a handbook for Americans of every ethnic descent—European, Mediterranean, Asian, African, Oriental, Indian, and others—interested in learning more about their family’s history.

If you want to have fun looking for your past, Finding Your Roots will show you all of the tricks used by professional ancestor tracers. It clearly describes the simplest techniques, lists hundreds of sources of information, and even provides diagrams, family tree charts, and other forms to help you reconstruct your family’s story.

On a state-by-state basis, Jeane Westin provides names and addresses of specialty libraries and bookstores, record bureaus, and genealogical societies—all ready and willing to help you in your search. Surprisingly, much of the detective work can be done from your home for little more than the price of a postage stamp.

Country by country, the author tells how to pursue family research in your ancestor’s homeland. She tells exactly where to write to obtain information from genealogical and heraldic societies, libraries, church registries, and embassies that will help you trace your long-lost relatives.

In addition, Ms. Westin recounts fascinating stories about the origins of names and coats of arms, gives suggestions on ways to unite your newfound family, and describes how to write and publish your own family’s history.

With the desire to know your family origins and a copy of Finding Your Roots, you can fill in the branches of your family tree more generations back than you would believe. It is a pastime more involving than reading whodunits, and a happy and productive family project that can be pursued at home and abroad throughout your life.

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About the Author: A devoted genealogist, Jeanne Eddy Westin has traced her own family tree back to eleventh-century England. She is the author of over 200 magazine articles and has also written Making Do: How Women Survived the Thirties. Ms. Westin makes her home in Sacramento, California.

Experienced genealogists know that the vast majority of valuable family history records are NOT online, but are housed in libraries, archives, historical societies and courthouses across the nation. After you’ve found names and dates and some basic information on the Internet, where do you go for details? How can you find out how your ancestors lived? In this book Claudia Breland, a professional genealogist with almost 40 years of research experience, will walk you through the basics of obtaining records such as: Social Security Applications Land and Property Records Wills and Probate Records Vital Records Court Records Military Records Divorce Records Adoption and Guardianship Records Newspapers Naturalization Records Each chapter describes the type of record, the information contained, where to find them, and fascinating examples. This book is a vital addition to any genealogist’s library!

Looking for a long-lost friend? Perhaps siblings separated at early ages? Or what if you’d like to know more about a prospective tenant or employee? Get the Facts on Anyone can help. Investigative reporter Dennis King will teach you how to unearth useful data about your subject. King packs a lot of information into the chapters, covering everything from basic research techniques and the use of readily available resources to details on how to detect “paper trippers” with false identities. You’ll also learn how to find “missing” people and how to get background information on others through a wide range of sources: newspapers, court records, military records, and “special methods” including license-plate surveillance and garbage analysis. Some of King’s advice seems a bit paranoid (he advises “backgrounding” dates, lovers, and spouses), but much of it is valuable: Knowing the details of your lawyer’s or physician’s professional past would certainly help grant peace of mind. A great bibliography and lists of databases point you to additional sources for in-depth searches. This book would be a useful reference to employers, landlords, and anyone engaged in genealogical research. Journalists and other detail-oriented researchers will find it invaluable. Get the Facts on Anyone will teach you how to follow leads, paper trails, and your own instinct to find the information you desire. — C.B. Delaney

From the Publisher: The Great Adoptee Search Book was Strauss’s first book. It began when her reunion with her birth family was covered by People magazine. Adoptees from across the country began to call, asking how to do a search. Describing how she’d found her birth relatives took hours, so she decided to commit a few pages to explaining the process. The few pages grew to almost a hundred, and so the little search book (with the big title) was born. Her subsequent search and reunion book, Birthright, was born directly from The Great Adoptee Search Book. An agent in Boston saw the thin tome, and contacted Strauss about doing a proposal, which was eventually purchased by Penguin Books. “One of the most amazing things about that first book,” Strauss recalls, “is when people would call me to let me know they’d read a few pages, tried a few of the suggestions, and found their birth family. One person had met their birth mother within four hours of buying my book. To think of having that kind of an impact on someone’s life was rather awesome.” And the footprint on the cover? “My oldest son was one when he got to be in People magazine because of the reunion. So my youngest son got to have his footprint on the cover of the book.”

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By the Same Author: Birthright: The Guide to Search and Reunion for Adoptees, Birthparents and Adoptive Parents (1994, Penguin) and Beneath a Tall Tree: A Story About Us (2001, Arete Publishing Co.).

The price of some powerful new genetic genealogy tests has dropped below $100. Genealogists and adoptees are using them and other DNA tests to identify ancestors, confirm relationships, and measure their ethnicity. Unfortunately, there are many similar sounding tests and some of them have different testing levels. So it’s easy to order the wrong test or pay too much. This Guide to DNA Testing provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the different test types, their strengths and limitations. Author and adoptee, Richard Hill, shared his personal success story in his book, Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA. Now he boils down the basics of genetic genealogy into this concise summary. Learn which tests are right for you. Hyperlinks to specific tests and resources are included.

From the Back Cover: The emotional and psychological roller coaster of contact and reunion—and all of the what-ifs—need be mysteries no more! For the first time ever in any book, more than 33 key issues involved in making contact and preparing for reunion are defined. For decades, contact and reunion have been “unchartered waters” for adoptees and birth families searching for one another. Most triads have no idea what awaits them in making contact. Now, Half Way Home! fills that information void. A book that poses the questions and provides the answers triads want with explanations, choices, warnings, sample letters and dialogue. Scores of examples from the most common and exceptional case histories help to emphasize and make real what other triads have experienced.

From the Back Cover: For couples who want a family, infertility—the inability to have a baby—can be a crushing blow. While modem medicine has more ways to treat infertility than ever before, some people question the ethics involved. In High-Tech Babies: The Debate Over Assisted Reproductive Technology, author Kathleen Winkler describes the amazing techniques available to help infertile couples, including intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy. She also looks at even more cutting-edge methods that may be available in the future. Winkler examines the different arguments over assisted reproduction in order to help readers form their own conclusions about this controversial subject. About the Author: Kathleen Winkler holds a master’s degree in journalism from Marquette University. Her previous books for Enslow Publishers, Inc., include Cosmetic Surgery for Teens: Choices and Consequences and Bullying: How to Deal With Taunting, Teasing, and Tormenting.

From the Dust Jacket: “You’ve picked up this book because you want to find someone or find out information about somebody,” says Norma Mott Tillman. “Perhaps you were separated from your father or mother. Perhaps you gave up a child for adoption. Perhaps you’ve become romantically involved with a person and want to know something about his or her past before you continue the relationship.

“Every person who has lost track of a parent, brother, sister, or other loved one has a void inside that aches with fear, longing, curiosity, and sometimes guilt. This is particularly true when family members are separated by adoption or divorce. But it can also happen to men and women who have lost friends, first loves, or military buddies.

“Many people doubt that they can actually find the person or information they want. Let me assure you that it’s not hard to do. It just takes persistence and ingenuity.”

Using the techniques described in this book, Norma Mott Tillman has personally found more than 1,000 people. She insists that anyone can follow these principles. “I think of it as a game,” she says. “To play the game, you must know the rules, the other players, and what it takes to win.”

Included in the book are types of missing persons and property, seven guidelines for starting a search, a reference section, and heartwarming accounts of families and friends who have been reunited.

“The average American leaves a paper trail seven miles long,” says the author. A successful search may require the uncovering of only one of the 43 different records that may exist on the average American. But that one record can lead to the information needed to find the person.

“Once you have read this book,” says the author, “the best advice I can give you Is to start with what you know and follow it until you’ve solved your personal mystery ... This is a book for real people with a real need for a reunion.”

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About the Author: Norma Mott Tillman is president of U.F.O., Inc. (Unlimited Facts Obtained), a private investigation agency in Nashville, Tennessee, that specializes in finding missing persons. Her eighteen years of experience have made her seminars in demand nationwide. The author of Secrets for Successful Searching and The Adoption Searcher’s Handbook, she is featured regularly on national television shows and has been profiled in several publications including Cosmopolitan, Emmy, and Good Housekeeping.

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By the Same Author: Adoption Searcher’s Handbook: A Guidebook for Adoptees, Birth Parents & Others Involved in the Adoption Search (1992, Diane Books); Secrets for Successful Searching: How to Locate Information & Find Almost Anyone (1992, UFO); and The Man with the Turquoise Eyes: And Other True Stories of a Private Eye’s Search for Missing Persons (1995).

How To Find Anyone Anywhere has been called the world’s best book on how to locate missing persons featuring innovative information drawn from over twenty years of successfully locating missing persons by the author. It also draws on the combined wisdom of thousands of private investigators with their best techniques and short cuts from around the world. Little known sources and techniques are covered that shortcut the process of locating a missing person. It’s also a business manual in that it gives you extremely hard to find information on different areas of specializations you can go into and markets you can tap to obtain assignments. The manual is also a resource directory to the best missing persons resources, searches and links on the Internet. It’s also a business manual in that it gives you extremely hard to find information on different areas of specializations you can go into and markets you can tap to obtain assignments.

From the Introduction: The desire to know more about one’s heritage is being increasingly fulfilled by more and more adoptees who are seeking and finding their birth families. This booklet will help the adoptee in his search. It is especially for the reader who does not think it is possible to do this, or does not know where to begin.

From the Back Cover: Former-FBI-agent-turned-private-investigator Ted Gunderson charts a pragmatic, step-by-step course for locating missing persons for legal, business, or personal reasons in How to Locate Anyone Anywhere. Special attention is given to the adoptee/birth parent search: those persons wanting to contact lost siblings, friends, parents, sexual partners, debtors, fellow alumni, and other important individuals will find help here. Ted Gunderson is matter-of-fact and logical in his search plan. He provides the most up-to-date information available (the nine appendices in the book form an extensive resource guide) to assist people in locating their loved ones. About the Author: Ted Gunderson heads his own private investigative firm in Los Angeles. Roger McGovern is a Los Angeles-based writer.

From the Back Cover: The Search Company has successfully found and reunited hundreds of missing people, and now they share their secrets with you in this book. You must own this book if you are searching for and want to find missing family, friends, lost loves—ANYONE! This book shows how to conduct a search using

• The Internet

• Public records

• The Library

• Information Brokers

• And Much More
Including

A Special Section on Adoption-Related Searches and Reunions
Plus

Case Studies—Real Stories from the Files of The Search Company

Whether you own a computer or not, this book will be your most valuable tool to help you navigate through every aspect of your search and reunion: from the emotional roller-coaster to the information super-highway!

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About the Author: Joanne Kerr, Ph.D.’s personal experience of being “found” by her daughter changed her life. The healing and joy she felt inspired her to commit her work to helping others search and reunite. She co-founded The Search Company with Dana in the spring of 1996. Since then, Joanne has consulted with hundreds of people about searching and reuniting, hearing their stories and feeling their pain in separation and their exhilaration when reunited.

Joanne has a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and has lectured for the Department of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University. She now is an adoption specialist and a Licensed Confidential Intermediary for the State of Arizona. Joanne consults, writes and speaks on search and reunion issues.

Dana Kerr Vian, an adoptee, always longed to look into the face of her biological mother Joanne, and began an intensive search to find her. In January, 1996, her search ended with a happy reunion. The connectedness Dana felt when she found her biological family led her to want to help others reunite with their lost loved ones. Her own experience of searching had taught her many techniques which she now shares with others through her work at The Search Company, with her birth mother Joanne as her partner. Now a professional search consultant, Dana’s knowledge combined with her investigative intuition are assets that she brings to The Search Company. Dana is also a media and public relations specialist.

Rory D. Goshorn brings his extensive background in research, public relations, and marketing to the firm. Having personally experienced his own family separation issue, Rory consults others on the need for reunion. Rory holds a B.A. from Biola University and is working towards his MFCC.

Contents Include: Directory of Base/Post Locators;
Directory of Armed Forces World Wide Locators;
Directory Of Military, Patriotic and Veterans Organizations;
Directory Of Military Unit Reunion Associations; and
Directory Of Veterans Bulletin Board Locators.
Here is some of the information covered in this unique book:
How to obtain the unit of assignment, home address and telephone number of any member of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps; Air Force, Coast Guard, the Reserve Components and National Guard.
How to have a letter forwarded to a current, former or retired member of the Armed Forces, Reserves or National Guard.
How to collect a debt or delinquent child support from a service member.
How to have a letter forwarded to any of 27 million veterans.
How to get an active duty service member home in the event of a family emergency or death.
How to locate people through the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Post Office and other state and federal agencies.
How to obtain copies of official military records of current, former or deceased military members.
How to locate people through their driver’s license or vehicle registration. How to locate someone who works for Civil Service.
How to find out if a military unit is having a reunion.
How to obtain a copy of a military unit’s or ship’s roster of names and service numbers.
How to locate former service men and women through veterans and military associations.
How to find out someone’s address & telephone number.
And many other ways to locate hard to find people even without their Social Security Number.

Includes More than 30 headings with guidelines and detailed alternatives for starting or expanding a successful group. About the Author: Jone Carlson is a former magazine editor and the author of several books, with three more in the works. She has pioneered research in adoption, been a speaker at 48 adoption conferences in the U.S. and Canada, and was invited to the White House as an advisor on adoption to President and Mrs. Clinton. Jone is a widow with five children and eight grandchildren. She has Bachelor’s degrees in English, Criminal Justice and Business Administration and her Master’s in Psychology. Jone resides in Palm Bay, FL. — Raider Reflections, St. Thomas Aquinas High School Alumni & Friends Magazine, Summer 2003

Revised edition of a guide first published in 1986 to tracing your family tree in Australia and overseas. Includes information on tracing births, birth places, marriages, deaths, coats of arms and sources such as shipping records and parish registers. The author is a professional genealogist.

This is the new 3rd edition of Angus Baxter’s classic In Search of Your Canadian Roots, now brought up to date with revised listings of finding-aids, record repositories, and e-mail and web site addresses. Handled with the acumen we have come to expect of Canada’s leading genealogist, it first discusses the great migrations of Scots, Irish, English, Germans, Huguenots, Ukrainians, and Jews to Canada; describes the national archives in Ottawa, with its holdings of censuses, parish registers, naturalization records, land and homestead records, military records, and passenger lists; summarizes the holdings of the LDS Church relating to Canada; and explores the vast nationwide record sources such as census records and church registers. Next it provides a province-by-province survey of genealogical sources—in effect, a step-by-step guide to the records and record repositories in each of the ten provinces and the Yukon and Northwest territories. This core section gives a detailed breakdown—by province and territory—of vital records, wills, land records, censuses, church records, newspapers, and books, then lists libraries, societies, and archives and their major holdings and ongoing projects. For both beginners and experienced researchers alike, the new 3rd edition of In Search of Your Canadian Roots gives common-sense tips on where to begin your research, how to work backward in time from the known to the unknown, how to test your facts and avoid common mistakes, and, ultimately, how to create a family tree. Whether your family has been in Canada for centuries or only several generations, this superb book will show you how to trace your Canadian roots and have fun doing it.

From Library Journal: The first part of this directory lists U.S. cities and towns alphabetically, along with their states, area and ZIP codes, counties, and populations. As a result, the 24 Franklins, 19 Washingtons, and 18 Greenvilles appear in sequence by state. Part 2 features state maps on which ZIP codes are shown. Parts 3 through 5 consist of counties and county seats arranged by state, a ZIP code reverse directory, and an area code reverse directory (i.e., area codes with their states and major cities), respectively. The major difference between this and the first edition (LJ 11/1/91) is the expansion from 8,500 to nearly 21,000 cities and towns. Census data from 1990 continue to be used, and some area codes have not been updated. Still, this will be useful as a quick reference for libraries, businesses, and offices.— Stanley P. Hodge, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, Ind.; Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

At one time or another all of us need copies of birth, marriage, or death certificates for driver’s licenses, passports, jobs, Social Security, family history research, or for simple proof of identity. But the fact is that the application forms needed to obtain copies of vital records vary from state to state and from country to country, often necessitating a tedious and time-wasting exchange of correspondence. The International Vital Records Handbook is designed to put an end to all that, as it offers a complete, up-to-date collection of vital records application forms from nations throughout the world, thus simplifying and speeding up the process by which vital records are obtained. Divided into two parts, this Fourth Edition of the International Vital Records Handbook contains forms and information for each of the fifty states and also furnishes details about the records that were created prior to statewide vital records registration; then, in alphabetical sequence, it covers all the other countries of the world, giving, where available, their current forms and instructions; and since most non-English-speaking nations have neither a centralized vital records registration system nor application forms of any kind, this work provides as a substitute a list of national and provincial record repositories or key addresses of other institutions that might be of assistance.

From the Publisher: It is said that each of us are nothing more and nothing less than a sum total of the people who have passed through our lives. Those influential people, be they family, friends, co-workers, military buddies or former loves, have each walked some portion of our life journey with us. While many of those people became the background characters of our forward-moving lives, some, a precious few, had extraordinary impacts in our experience and played very important roles in shaping our current self. When one of those influential people falls out of our daily life, it can leave a hole that often evolves into an ache. That growing ache is what has driven tens of thousands of people from all walks of life to seek out the wisdom and expertise of Troy Dunn. His tireless efforts to seek out and reunite people with their most important missing loved ones have taken him on a 20-year journey that has become his life’s work. While rebuilding over 40,000 fractured relationships, Troy has harvested priceless insights, which have evolved into powerfully effective relationship tools. It is these specific tools that he credits with the unprecedented success he has had in rebuilding lives and relationships.

Today, his ongoing efforts to grant the wishes of the hopeful and the hopeless are chronicled in the hit TV show, The Locator on WE TV. The Locator, now in its 5th season, follows Troy and his team on the ever-changing path to closure, answers and sometimes, tearful reunions and new beginnings.

As you read this book, Troy will take you behind the scenes of some of his favorite cases and share with you the relationship tools he used to rebuild and resolve. You will be uplifted, inspired and empowered by the journey you are about to embark on with Troy. But more importantly, when you finish, you will possess the effective tools and resources to manage your own relationships and those of the people around you. As Troy reminds us each week on WE TV’s The Locator, “You can’t find peace until you find all the pieces.”

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About the Author: Troy Dunn is a successful entrepreneur with a focus on family values. Having grown up in a family touched by adoption, Troy saw a need for a service that facilitated the rebuilding of fractured families and those separated through various circumstances. 20 years later, he and his team of passionate searchers and facilitators (led by his mother, Katie) have reunited tens of thousands of families around the world. He continues this life work today via WE tv s hit series, The Locator.

In addition to his hit TV show, Troy is also the co-founder of Dunn Hoisington Leadership, an organization dedicated to teaching and developing leadership skills to Fortune 500 companies around the world. Troy is also seen frequently as a favorite business contributor on Fox News and CNBC.

As much as he enjoys his time rebuilding families or enhancing leadership in organizations, it all comes second behind his highest priority, his family.

From the Back Cover: Susan was forty-three years old before she learned the truth that she had long suspected: that she was adopted. Then came the long, involved search for her biological family roots, a roller-coaster of emotions that uncovered secret after secret, revealing truth after truth.

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About the Author: Susan Bennett is the national secretary and on the board of directors of American Adoption Congress, as well as the Southwest Regional Director of the organization and editor of The Beacon. She is also a board member and librarian for Search Triad, Inc., in Arizona and a producer on the documentary film project, denied. She lives in Gilbert, AZ, with her husband, Mike.

From the Back Cover: Studies show that at least one in every ten Americans is directly affected by adoption. Over the years, as many as 80% of these people have tried to search. This is done for many reasons, including curiosity and the need for a psychological sense of connection. One of the most common and pressing motives for searching is the need for complete and up-to-date medical information. Experts today recognize that over 6,000 illnesses, including many forms of heart disease and cancer, can be routinely transmitted hereditarily. Compounding this alarming reality for adoptees and their families is the fact that these illnesses often lie dormant between generations and are passed down to loved ones unknowingly. These grave health dangers are rapidly causing millions of adoptees, birthparents and adoptive parents worldwide to take action and get some much needed answers.

An adoptee himself who suffered from a severe cardiac disorder at the age of 23, author Virgil Klunder has joined with over sixty of the nation’s most respected adoption search experts in a two-year project to compile this easy to read, step-by-step guide which includes:

• Over 100 time-tested techniques that have successfully gotten results for thousands of persons around the world.

• 59 sample letters, documents and checklists that can be used immediately to get important facts and information.

• A detailed 21-point directory of search tips for all 50 states; including current laws, personal guidance and instruction from local search experts and contacts to over 1,000 organizations set up exclusively to benefit searchers.

Whether your goals are to anonymously obtain vital medical information or reunite with the person(s) you are searching for—Lifeline is the key to finding the answers.

Is your life touched by adoption? Are you curious about the child you relinquished to adoption or your birth family? Have you been thinking about searching? Have you been searching unsuccessfully? Are you searching and not sure what to expect? Have you recently found or been found and feel like you are walking on eggshells? Do you want to learn more about search and reunion? You owe it to yourself to taking the first step in facilitating a successful reunion. If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions, this book is for you.

Searching for anyone from your past? The Locator is a step-by-step manual on how to search and find almost anyone. Written by Private Investigators and updated every year, this search tool has already helped thousands of people find who they are looking for. About the Author: Steven Jay Weisz is a licensed Private Investigator and CEO of International Locator, the largest licensed investigation agency in the United States specializing in missing persons. Weisz and his company have reunited people on all over the world and appeared on most major Television Talk/News programs and in the press.

From the Back Cover: As Seen on National Television

Troy Dunn and the International Locator, Inc./BigHugs.com now make available for the first time all of their secrets for finding lost friends, family, and loved ones—anywhere, anytime.

If you are one of the nine out of ten people looking for someone in your past, you need the information in this book:

• How to search successfully on the Internet

• How to obtain essential government records

• How to gather all-important adoption records

• How to access millions of public records FREE

• How to make effective phone calls

• How to write letters that get a positive response

• How to decide where to look, when, and why

• How to be sure that your reunion will be as rewarding as it can be

The Locator not only provides all the above information, but also includes sample documents that indicate where crucial information might be “hidden in plain sight”; sample letters to follow when making those all-important contacts; a complete listing, including addresses and telephone numbers, of all essential agencies throughout the world; information on how to get help from the International Locator itself.

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About the Author: Troy Dunn is founder and president of International Locator, Inc./BigHugs.com in Cape Coral, Florida, the largest licensed investigation agency in the United States specializing in missing persons. He will be familiar to television viewers from his many appearances on such programs as “Sally Jessy Raphael” and “Unsolved Mysteries.” Since its founding a decade ago, International Locator, Inc., has reunited thousands of people in all fifty states and many other countries.

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Compiler’s Note: In describing the legislative changes in Australia, the author quotes what he describes as a “letter from Mary Iwanek to William Gage” (pp. 184-85; 298), crediting Mr. Gage as “the publisher and editor of the twin adoption and search-related newsletters Geborener Deutscher® (an English-language newsletter) and Das Adoptionsdreieck (a German-language newsletter).” (ibid.) Also, the author provides reasonably accurate information about searching in Germany, and included a direct referral to Leonie Boehmer.

From the Back Cover: If you are among the millions of people who are looking for someone from your past, you are about to embark on an exciting journey. Perhaps your search is one of the “big five” most common search categories—adoptee, birth parent, lost love, old friend, or military buddy. Or you may be searching for a past co-worker, former neighbor, childhood friend. This book contains the strategies and information you will need to complete your search as quickly and simply as possible.

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About the Author: Troy Dunn pioneered his system of locating lost family and friends back in 1990 while trying to assist his own family in locating biological relatives. Shortly thereafter, at the age of twenty-three, Dunn founded an organization whose sole purpose was to patch the world back together, one family at a time. This organization eventually reached across all fifty states and thirty-two countries, and today is responsible for reuniting thousands of families worldwide. Dunn has been featured hundreds of times on national television where he reunites people in front of millions of viewers. This national exposure got the attention of the executives at MyFamily.com, Inc. and, in the fall of 2002, Dunn and his organization joined the team at MyFamily.com as the in-house search and reunion experts. Dunn continues to be seen by millions of television viewers as he makes reunion dreams come true. Dunn resides in Florida with his wife of fifteen years (high school sweetheart) and their six children.

From the Back Cover: —“If your mum wanted you, she’d have kept you”—
—“I’d rather know the worst than not at all”—

But imagine discovering that your mother is a down-and-out alcoholic, as Colette did; or tracing a mother who refuses to acknowledge you, as Tom did; worst of all, imagine learning from a bundle of yellowing newspaper cuttings of the appalling scandal surrounding your mother, as Georgina did...

These are poignant stories of deep and conflicting emotions, of children whose quest is to unravel the most fundamental ties of blood which bind us all.

Journalist Polly Toynbee’s conclusions are so far-reaching and important that they have provoked a storm of controversy and debate.

Polly Toynbee, the journalist and author, spent three years researching and writing this investigation. It is not a “sociological” work, in the narrow sense of that term, although she comes to some hard-hitting conclusions. Rather it is a series of thrilling stories which portray people at their most determined and their most vulnerable, engaged in a search of supreme importance. The results of their quests are often surprising, sometimes distressing, but they all agree that it is better to know the truth than be left in the dark.

Polly Toynbee’s research led her to the conclusion that a searching look into the present adoption procedures was sorely needed.

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About The Author: Polly Toynbee writes a regular weekly column in the Guardian. She was previously a feature writer on the Observer. in 1975 she won the Catherine Pakenham Memorial Prize for journalism, and she has twice received British Press Awards.

She is the author of The Way We Live Now (1983), Hospital (1977), A Working Life (1971) and a novel, Leftovers (1966). Polly Toynbee is married with four children and lives in Clapham, London.

As a self-help search tool, this guide book is invaluable. Written in a straightforward logical manner, this eBook is meant to help family members, lost loves, judgment collectors, or even former classmates locate their missing person as inexpensively as possible. This guide book is full of little known as well as unusual obvious resource tips to help the average person in their quest. If even one single tip or resource produces results, you will have been repaid many, many times over.