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The Ultimate Search Book: U.S. Adoption, Genealogy & Other Search SecretsThe Ultimate Search Book: U.S. Adoption, Genealogy & Other Search Secrets. Lori Carangelo. Paperback, 2015, Biblio., Index, vi + 86 pp.
This edition of The Ultimate Search Book differs from its 2011 predecessor in three important respects. First, it is a completely up-to-date exposition of Lori Carangelo’s mastery in finding adopted children, missing relatives, runaway children, and others that she has cultivated over her adult lifetime. The director of the organization Americans for Open Records, Carangelo explains (1) just how search experts get past the wall of secrecy and roadblocks to their loved ones; (2) how, in the case of adoptees, they find someone without a prior knowledge of the name; and (3) the trade secrets of both professional investigators and amateur sleuths for legally circumventing roadblocks to accessing information. In the process, she discusses numerous record categories that figure in the discovery process, including court dockets, adoption decrees, hospital records, baptismal certificates, DMV records, Social Security records, DNA testing, voter registrations, telephone records, military records, divorces, tax records, and much more. As should be expected, there are many references to Internet websites that are critical for finding missing persons. A second new feature of the 2015 edition is the inclusion of a 25-page Addendum containing facsimile illustrations of documents that crop up in the search process. Here the researcher will find many different forms of birth certificates (short- and long-form certificates, hospital-issued certificates, religious birth certificates, and more), adoption decrees, requests to waive court fees, International Soundex Reunion Registry forms, etc. Finally, this edition can be used on its own or as a companion to its 2011 counterpart. Whereas the Worldwide Adoption version of 2011 led the researcher to the principal agencies or addresses of vital records departments on an international scale, the new U.S. Adoption book is strictly a domestic how-to guide. It stands independently, but it can also be used in conjunction with the more encyclopedic edition of 2011, when the search for "the missing knowledge and people who were lost or made to disappear" leads outside the U.S. 8813-C |