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As DH, DS, and I are planning to travel to Russia in July of 2017. See other post - international adoptee / family group travel to Russia with an organization called Ties, DS and I thought, gosh, if we are there already, why not see if we can get some information about birth parents/relatives. And maybe we can even meet them if they can be found, logistics work out, and they have any interest in meeting us. We'd have a translator with us, as only DH has studied Russian and even with several semesters in college, he's not fluent (His grammar and accent are impressive, though, and the Russians we met before loved him for that and loved talking to him). DS's birth parents are reported to have had three other children when he was born, so maybe there would even be the chance to meet birth siblings.
We'd like to work with a searcher on this. Do you have any recommendations of someone who would be good to work with and any information about typical costs? Our son was adopted from a St. Petersburg orphanage and his birth parents lived in St. Petersburg at that time (that goes back to 1995). I'd love recommendations and I'd love to hear about any experiences you have had if you worked with a searcher on a Russian birth parent search. Please note that we are fully prepared and OK with not finding them, but thought why not try especially since we are doing what may be a once in a lifetime trip due to distance and expense.
Hello, we adopted our daughter from Russia in 2006 and hired a searcher who found her mother in 2008. We exchanged a letter and sent a photo. The searcher did a video interview of her mom and half-brother (baby). Recently, my daughter, now 15, has expressed an interest in corresponding with her Russian mom but the address is no longer good. We previously used Mary Kirkpatrick from Russian Family Search but that organization is no longer in operation. I recently sent an email to another organization advertising that they conduct searches but never heard back from them. I recently went as far to email Putin's office but no reply. If you find out anything regarding your journey, could you please share with me?
Just recently I came across a WP story about a Russian adoptee that got a Fulbright scholarship to go to Russia. It is my understanding that she is involved with familyseek.org - a free site offering volunteer help in locating birth families. Might be worth a try before you go with a paid investigative service - after all, even some background info and a quick search on Russian social media sites might bring quick results.
This is a pretty old post and I ended up using this search company (see link below). I was really happy working with them and they did a great job on our search. My son's birth mom was deceased, but they found dad and two birth brothers.
Now that travel to Russia seemed a bit overwhelming, and we haven't done that yet. Decided not to do Ties. Am still researching with lots of paperwork to do, etc. but thinking of maybe a private trip with folks from search company above. Want to get references, etc. first.
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