Searching For Birth Mother 

By Chris Maione - OmniTrace Research Department Manager

Have you seen Forrest Gump?  It was a great flick.  In the movie, Forrest’s mother, played by actress: Sally Field,  told Forrest:

Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re gonna get.

That quote REALLY applies when searching for a birth mother!  Here’s a case in point: 

Last year, Omnitrace was retained by an adoptee lucky enough to have her original birth certificate.   She was born in 1946, and her birth mother’s first, middle and last names were listed on the birth certificate.    The birth mother’s age and place of birth were also listed.

Now, that’s a LOT more information than we typically have when we begin a new birth mother search.  Our OmniTrace search team was very confident that we could QUICKLY resolve this case and reunite our client with her birth mother and/or birth family members.

Well…   We searched for months!  We searched and searched and searched. 

We researched current and historical database records.  Just some of the sources we utilized were: 

• Credit Header Information from TransUnion, Equifax and Esperian
• National Deeds
• 1910-1930 U.S. Census Records
• National Liens, National Judgments
• National Bankruptcies
• Birth Records
• Marriage Records
• Driving Records
• Tangible Property Records
• Public Utility Records
• Baby Bell Records
• ABI Business Directory
• Social Security Death Index
• National Death Locator
• Newspaper, Magazine and Online Obituaries
• Other additional state-specific databases.

Can you tell we’re doing a little venting here? 

Well, after all this searching we found only one possible match who could be the birth mother.  We couldn’t find her, so we tracked down and contacted all her likely birth relatives.   Guess what?  We had the wrong person.

We learned in subsequent interviews with our client that, years earlier, she had spoken with someone from the adoption agency who had met her birth mother.   The agency employee had referred to her birth mother by her middle name, not the first name listed on the original birth certificate. 

We thought this was significant, and we redid all our searches–replacing the birth mother’s first name with the middle name.  Our search of the 1930 US Census revealed only one woman in the USA who could be a correct match. 

We conducted more research to locate our possible birth mother.  Still no luck!  However, we found that our possible birth mother had an older brother.  We then searched for the older brother and learned that he had passed away several years ago.  We then conducted a background search on him and learned he had two daughters. 

Finally, with a little luck, we located one of the daughters.  We contacted her and this was indeed the biological cousin of our client.  We learned that our client’s birth mother had passed away in the early 1990s, however, we were able to reunite our client with five birth sisters and a birth brother! 

Note:  The birth mother was listed on the original birth certificate as Marie Anna Stubbin, but in fact she was actually Anna Marie Stubbin. 

So, when searching for a birthmother, you never know what you’re gonna get.   

Please write us if you have any comments or questions.  For immediate assistance, please call us toll free at:  888-965-6696.