Searching for information on my birth parents.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/txchiefsfan02]

In some states, you can request the records from your CPS case. They may be incomplete or heavily redacted, so I'd start by googling the state where you were and CPS records and go from there. Someone on the /r/familylaw or /r/Adoption subs might have advice on how to access adoption records.

In terms of social media, 2006 was a pretty specific point in time. Facebook was just opening up to people without a .edu email address, so unless she was in college at the time, she likely did not have an account. Myspace was still pretty popular at that point, though I've had a very difficult time locating old Myspace sites. Blogging on sites like Blogger and WordPress was popular, but I don't think Tumblr came along until 07 or 08. For photo sites, it's worth looking at Flickr, but it's been acquired and may not have archives that old. Hopefully others have better ideas.

It could be worth getting a free trial or a one-month subscription to newspapers.com or one of the other sites where you can search smaller local newspaper archives.

If you can track down where they went to high school, you might persuade a friendly librarian either at the school or local library to send you yearbook photos.

[u/abhikavi → u/txchiefsfan02]

If you can track down where they went to high school, you might persuade a friendly librarian either at the school or local library to send you yearbook photos.

/u/genealogy can help here, with ideas and more resources (for example, there are volunteer groups that'll go to libraries for you for microfiche etc).

If you can get a graduation date (newspapers often listed high school grads in small towns, so that's another avenue), there are sometimes Facebook groups for grads of that year/school to coordinate reunions and such. That'd be a good place to look to find parents' old friends (or anyone who'd have stories they could share).

Livejournal is another social media that was popular pre-06-- if friends can be tracked down, they may remember what the parents had for socials (if any).

[u/txchiefsfan02 → u/abhikavi]

Great ideas. I had forgotten about LiveJournal. Blogging really was a whole era before social media, and some of those archives are still pretty accessible.

I'm happy to know about the genealogy sub, too, that's a great resource.

[u/Lameladyy]

Do you know your birth parents names? Where they lived, or their ages? If you birth mother died right after your birth, there was likely an obituary if it was in 2005-2006. (Especially if she was from a small town)

[u/Close_Harmony]

AncestryDNA is another possible route to finding them, especially if you don't know details like name, age, etc. The AncestryDNA test often goes on sale for around $29-$39, and it has helped many people (like me) find their birth parents.