Birth Family Search Tips For ALL Korean Adoptees (Regardless of Their Korean / Western Adoption Agency).
*Please note that Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptees ONLY should be sure to see the Birth Family Search page below:Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search *Note: A Western Adoption Agency = A US, European, Australian, or Canadian Adoption Agency Each major KOREAN Adoption Agency had / has a list of corresponding Western Adoption Agencies (in the US, Europe, Australia, or Canada).
Many Korean Adoptees don’t realize that the best place to begin a Birth Family Search is with her or his KOREAN Adoption Agency in Korea. All 4 of the major Korean Adoption Agencies offer “Post Adoption Services” for Korean Adoptees. Each Korean Adoption Agency has its own forms which you must fill out in order to initiate a Birth Family Search.
Note for US Korean Adoptees: If you do not know what your US or Korean Adoption Agencies were, and you are a US Korean Adoptee, you can file a FREE FOIA request. The documents which you will receive in response to your request should tell you what your US and Korean Adoption Agencies were. For those who had a private adoption arranged through a lawyer, you may or may not have had a US or Korean Adoption Agency. However, in such cases, you may have been in an Orphanage and adopted directly from there.
The 4 major KOREAN Adoption Agencies are below.
Please see the “Post Adoption Services” pages on the agencies’ respective website:
HOLT Korea (not to be confused with Holt International, which is the Western Holt Adoption Agency):
Email: pasc@holt.or.kr
Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) - formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS):
Website: https://eng.eastern.or.kr/
Email: postadoption@eastern.or.kr
Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS)
Website: https://kws.or.kr/en/business/adopt01.asp
Update January 2024: Please note that this website has changed. Above is the current Post Adoption Services link.
Please spread the word about the SWS / KWS new Post Adoption Services link.
Email: swspas@kws.or.kr
Korea Social Service (KSS)
*IMPORTANT NOTE! If you are a KSS Adoptee, please be sure to see the Step By Step KSS Birth Family Search page.
Email: kssinc@kssinc.org
Birth family search / places to seek information:
Guideline & Tips:
Here are some general guidelines for your birth family search. The following is in reference to Korean adoptions, but the same applies for most international adoptions in all countries that were not brokered privately through a lawyer:
Birth Family Search For Those Living Outside of Korea:
FIRST:
If you are ready to approach your adoptive parents, ask them for your adoption records.If you (believe you) already have your complete adoption records, you can skip this step. If you are a US Adoptee who is unable to obtain your adoption records from your adoptive parents, you can file a FREE FOIA request.
The files our adoptive parents have are often limited in terms of information about birth parent/s or biological sibling/s.We are sometimes told by the Korean / Western Adoption Agencies that our parents were given “everything.” However, what they mean by “everything” in this case is only what the adopting parent needs to make their adoption legal.You are asking for these papers primarily to ascertain which English adoption documents are missing, as most of the adoption paperwork given to your adoptive parents will have little valuable information in which to assist your search. *Most Korean Adoption Agencies kept more truthful information which they will not easily share with the Adoptee or the adoptive parents.
SECOND: Identify and contact your relevant KOREAN Adoption Agency for a Birth Family Search first. You want to initiate an official Birth Family Search through your KOREAN Adoption Agency via email.
Contact NCRC (The National Center for the Rights of the Child) – and request a formal Birth Family Search. NCRC is considered the authoritative search organization and they are supposed to (in time) house all adoption files from all agencies. (Korea Social Service / KSS maintains control of its files). You can also go to their website and find their page to list your name and details that you are searching.
You will need to file a Petition for Adoption Disclosure on the KAS (Korean Adoption Services - the predecessor to NCRC) site in order to initiate a Birth Family Search through NCRC. Please see the link below for more information:
How to Use NCRC for Birth Family Search
Check out the Korea Adoption Services (KAS) website for useful resources for Adoptees:
For further Birth Family Search assistance, you can also contact:
GOAL:
They still provide their annualFirst Trip Homeprogram, in which Birth Family Search services are included.
GOAL is an Adoptee run organization and has very limited staff, so you can expect long wait times.
Other organizations that provide Homeland Adoptee Tours include:
Me & Korea:
https://meandkorea.org/apply
The tour does include a birth search component.
INKAS: Don’t know which Western (US / European / Australian / Canadian) If you are a US Adoptee, we recommend that you
http://inkas.org
This will show which of the four major Korean International Adoption Agencies your Western Adoption Agency is associated with.Similar lists can be searched for pertaining to other countries:http://www.adoptkorea.com/us-agency.htm
What many Adoptees don’t understand is that the often Western (US / European / Australian / Canadian) Adoption Agency that they have heard of all their lives is really like the retailer at the end of adistribution chain, and that there are middle-men wholesalers who do the bulk of the importation / procuring from the source country’s (Korea’s) resources, which would be the hospitals, midwives’ clinics, single unwed mothers’ homes, orphanages, etc - the primary sources of the children in Korea.
In other words, most Korean Adoptees were sourced from various places in Korea and had both a KOREAN Adoption Agency and a corresponding Western Adoption Agency which collaborated on your adoption. For more information on these distinctions, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.
For example: Origin of child: Severance Hospital, Seoul Korea > Korean Adoption Agency: Holt Korea > Western Adoption Agency: Bethany Christian Services
Origin of child: Sung Ae Won Orphange, Won Ju, Korea > Korean Adoption Agency: Holt Korea > Western Adoption Agency: Holt International HOLT Korea vs. HOLT International:
YES!There IS a difference between Holt International and Holt Childrens’ Services!The difference is Holt International is the Western Adoption Agency at the end of the distribution chain and what they refer to as their “partner” is the broker, Holt Childrens’ Services (the Korean Adoption Agency).This is VERY CONFUSING for Adoptees in search. Don’t bother with Holt International – GO TO THE SOURCE.
Why do a Birth Family Search in your original country (Korea)? Why not go through your local / Western Adoption Agency?
Discretionary power – Just as the documents your adoptive parents have were distributed to them, they were also distributed to your local / Western Adoption Agency: at the Korean Adoption Agency’s discretion. The Adoption Agencies in Korea are very protective of any documents that show errors, omissions, falsifications, and/or past incompetence and have a proven history of hiding behind Confucian values and legal contracts to preserve confidentiality, even in instances where it doesn’t apply.
Speculation – Your local / Western Adoption Agency just doesn’t know for certain if they have everything, they can only assume they were given everything by the Korean Adoption Agencies (which they likely weren’t). They only have copies, and originals other than were given to the adoptive parents are not at hand to check against. IF there are more documents, they are IN KOREA.
Policy vs. Law – We already have to maneuver through the confusing lack of distinction between company policies and adoption laws. Then, to compound this we have to work not only with this in our own countries and at the same time trust that the same people who brokered our adoptions will represent our interests in another country that has an equally ambiguous and inaccessible blurred division between company policy and adoption law. It’s smart to not duplicate this confusion and limit it to one time only – in the most effective place – that is, at its/our origins.
Most importantly - your KOREAN Adoption Agency is the one with your original adoption documents, likely with the most truthful information about your origin.
THIRD:
Contact your Korean Adoption Agency directly.
Ask them for your documents.Specifically requestALL of your KOREAN and English documents.
Here is the contact information for the four government-approved International Adoption Agencies IN Korea:
Holt International Children’s Services (HCS)
Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS)
Korea Social Service, Inc. (KSS)
KSS Adoptees ONLY should visit this page first:
Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search.Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS):
FOURTH:
After receiving your documents, go over them with a fine-toothed comb.
Put the documents in chronological order.
Note the order of your travels.
Note inconsistencies in dates.
Note any names of people & institutions.
Note missing page numbers, references to missing pages, etc.
Common missing items are:Travel documents from City Halls, Police Stations, and Orphanages, first log book entries, and the earliest Social Welfare Histories.
These documents are typically in Korean and untranslated.Find a reputable translator who is not an employee of the Adoption Agency to translate them for you.
Social Welfare Histories are often translated into English, however, many important details get lost in translation. If you only have an English translation, request the social history IN KOREAN so you can have your own independent translation done.
By the way, regarding the Orphan Hojuk which everyone gets so excited about: while it is an amazing document in that it totally falsifies our identity (in the majority of cases), it is almost always absolutely worthless for our search purposes precisely because it is completely fictitious / false.
If your mother was unwed at the time of relinquishment, it is the policy of some Adoption Agencies to dismiss your case by telling you they have given you all the information they have (that they feel legally bound to, as they consider the anonymity of the relinquishment contract to be irrevocable.They discount that signing is ever under duress or that a mother’s position may change over time.The passive registry system of expressing desire for contact is provided as an alternative, though few parents worried about their social positions take advantage of the registry system while many birth parents are open to meeting if contacted.
FIFTH:
After noting what documents are missing, request those missing documents.
Request the documents SPECIFICALLY and ask again for EVERYTHING that they have on you.
SIXTH:
Also at this time (or earlier) also request to be listed in their passive search registry.
Write your family a note and leave contact information and copies of photos for them with your Korean Adoption Agency.
Be sure to grant the Korean Adoption Agency written permission for ANY birth family members to contact you. Ask your KOREAN Adoption Agency if there is any specific form for this. Korean birth parents do not have the rights to look for their children - ONLY Korean Adoptees have the right to look for their Korean birth parents (according to Korean Adoption Agency practice).
Birth Family Search while in Korea:
FIRST:
Make an appointment – critical.
Remember that you can catch more flies with honey and that, despite some agency workers having reputations for stone-walling adoptees, try and be diplomatic, respectful, and charming.
SECOND:
Come prepared.
Bring a bi-lingual friend/interpreter (available through G.O.A.’L. or INKAS. You can also find translators through friends of friends. Another thing to do is to post on the Korean Adoptee forums that you are searching for a translator and you may get recommendations) and let them know you are another adoptee and do not understand Korean. You should also:
Bring your I.D.
Bring questions you might have (in your emotional distress, you may forget to ask them)
Bring a video camera (some of the agencies will only allow YOU to view the documents and not allow you a non-family member to help support or translate for you – however, if you are filming a documentary they may make an exception)
Bring a camera (some of the agencies do not allow you to touch the documents and only allow you to look at selected documents, but occasionally allow you to photograph them)
THIRD:
If you have that nasty feeling something is being withheld from you (or you saw the worker hiding documents):
Contact NCRC at the info listed previously.
FOURTH:
Pore over your documents, as previously outlined above.
If you find a name or some identifying information of a family member, or if you find some identifying information of someone who might have information leading to the whereabouts of your family, contact NCRC.
Resorting to Mass Media:
Many adoptees consider mass media (especially search and reunion t.v.) exploits their emotions for entertainment. However, it HAS proven to find some success when other methods have failed. Less invasive methods are YTN after-news updates and G.O.A.’L.’s annual Birth Family Search Campaign, which produces posters in the subways and a pamphlet available at city offices.
G.O.A.’L. worked closely with KBS and YTN in the past. As mentioned before, some of these tv shows are off the air. Contact GOAL or KAS to see if there are any other tv shows which are currently airing which feature adoptees who are searching.
Regardless of which orphanage you were adopted through, all searches ultimately must pass/be conducted by NCRC. They are recognized as the central authority presently.
NCRC:
How To Use NCRC for Birth Family Search
If you were adopted through ISS-Korea and ISS-USA:
ISS-Korea was originally called Children's Placement Services (CPS), and they later morphed into Social Welfare Society (SWS) / Korea Welfare Society (KWS). If you were an adoptee thru Children's Placement Services or SWS, you can contact the ISS-USA archives in Minnesota to see if there are any documents of you in their library archive. It is where one ISS Adoptee found most of her documents. ISS-USA website is:
There are many places to search. US Adoptees can also do a FREE FOIA request for their US Immigr. records:
FREE FOIA Request for US Adoptees
Resources for Hapa Adoptees (Mixed Race Adoptees):
For Hapa Adoptees (Mixed Race Adoptees), it might be useful to use some of the search angel organizations that are located here in the US such as 325Kamra.
For those of us seeking military records of birth fathers, you can contact:
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/
Check online Korean vet sites (Koreaatourofduty, Korean War Educator, Korean War Project, Also cansubscribe tohttps://www.vetfriends.comand put a post there.
Use Facebook - even if your birth father is not on it, he may have other offspring that do use it. Depending on privacy settings, you can scroll through photo albums if you happen to know the name or your biological father or the state where he was from.
Use various search engines: beenverified, peoplesmart, Truepeoplesearch, etc.
www.priscillasharp.org(search angel, genealogist, adoptee advocate)
www.isrr.org(International Soundex Reunion Registry)
www.gsadoptionregistry.com
You can also use some of the DNA testing services through
DNA Testing information for Korean Adoptees
LDS/family search
Other websites worth looking at:
Koreaatourofduty
Korean War Educator
Korean War project
List of Organizations who can assist with birth family search:
GOAL:
INKAS:
Also for those who have information on a GI or military person they want to find records on you can contact the National Military Records Center in St. Louis. There was a fire there in the 1970’s and many records there were destroyed, but they have slowly been recreating them. You can find the address for them on their website:
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/
If you need a records researcher, you can contact them and they might be able to recommend one to you. The one that a Hapa Adoptee used in the past and who charged reasonable rates (about 20 dollars per hour (2014) was Elizabeth Terry:
Elizabeth Terry, M.A.
Research & Writing, Genealogy, and Archives
St. Louis, Missouri
www.eterryhistory.com
314-283-1779
Regarding Korean ID Numbers:
"The Korean ID number" is similar to the US social security number and is assigned to any Korean National who currently lives or lived in Korea. A bit of info about the ID number: If you are a Korean or and you were born overseas and never lived IN Korea, a Korean ID number most likely was never or never will be assigned to you. If a Korean or naturalized Korean national who lives in Korea moves overseas and registers at the Korean consulate or embassy where they moved, their Korean ID number is deactivated, not deleted, but is moved into a non-domestic residence database (meaning holding a residence in Korea). If they acquire citizenship of a foreign country - their ID number is moved into the Jejeok deungbon (deleted registry). This is where adoptees information is.
If the Korean ID number is available, it is easy to locate a birth family member because the ID number system is a nationwide system. A Korean national is required to report their current address to the local Jumin Center (Community Service Center) which is responsible for their address. It is sort of like a Town Hall. When a Korean moves, they are required to report their new address at least 14 days in advance to their new Jumin Center. This helps facilitate a smooth transition of their information to their new location. It also will change their address in ANY government database (ie: health insurance, drivers license, vehicle registration, etc). If an individual with a Korean ID number does not report this move and later are found to have moved without reporting the address, they can be fined up to 1 million Korean won (about 1,000 USD).
If an Adoptee has no ID number but a name, this is where it gets a bit more complicated. With the information you have about your birth parents, police or city hall workers can possibly do a ID number system inquiry by name and approximate age (+/- 5 years) and location. Sometimes there are over 100 individuals with the same name and within the 10 year search. If there is compelling information in which he feels is a good possibility of a match, he will either visit the address or addresses personally or have a police officer from a "police box" (police box is a very common word found on a lot of adoptees documents - this merely is a police station) closer to the address visit the address. When I mean compelling information of a possible good match - I mean, sometimes if an adoptee was once registered under their father (or sometimes mother), the record could still be there - however, when you were adopted, a new record (aka orphan registry) was created to facilitate your adoption (but there are those cases where an adoptee was adopted on their original family registry).
Please see:
Pro-Active Birth Family Search Tips for KSS Adoptees.
Tip 1A: When In Korea, Be Sure To Visit Local Community Centers (주민센터) Close To Your City / Area of Birth and Ask For Your Family Registry (호적).
Other useful / relevant info:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
