International Soundex Reunion Registry

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The International Soundex Reunion Registry, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, tax exempt, humanitarian organization founded in 1975 by Emma May Vilardi. ISRR is a free mutual consent adoption reunion registry for persons desiring a reunion with next-of-kin. This agency serves the needs of family members who have been separated from each other by adoption, divorce, foster care, abandonment, or other means.

Emma May Vilardi

An adoption reunion registry is a formal mechanism where adoptees and their birth family members can be reunited. Registries may be free or charge fees, be facilitated by non-profit organizations, government agencies or private businesses.

The registries filing system was based originally on Soundex Code which is a phonetic way of coding giving numeric value to consonants and ignores vowels, except as a first letter. This system allows for matching despite some differences in spelling. It was a perfect foundation for a situation where often people did not know exact spelling.

Soundex is a phonetic algorithm for indexing names by sound, as pronounced in English. The goal is for homophones to be encoded to the same representation so that they can be matched despite minor differences in spelling. The algorithm mainly encodes consonants; a vowel will not be encoded unless it is the first letter. Soundex is the most widely known of all phonetic algorithms Improvements to Soundex are the basis for many modern phonetic algorithms.

The founder, Emma May Vilardi, was a remarkable woman of extraordinary vision and courage who undertook this important, humane task of providing a safe and secure way for persons seeking contact to make themselves available to each other. This registry remains her legacy to the adoption community and the hundreds of thousands served. "It was not until Emma began looking for the reasons behind the many illnesses that she had suffered that she learned that ancestors and genetics were the key to understanding her health problems. Daring a probate judge to unseal an adoption record, she quickly learned that her ancestors had succumbed to the same diseases." [1]

The ISRR Executive Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring the operation of the registry for future generations. The registry motto is, "United today for the reunions of tomorrow." For many it remains a place of hope when they feel all other resources have been exhausted, for others it was a quick and easy step that led them to connect with family members they longed to know.

Now one of many existing adoption reunion registries, Soundex is the oldest and largest of its kind. It served as a model for many state registries, for Senator Carl Levin's U.S. Senate Bill's in the 1980s trying to establish a national adoption registry, [2] and into the 1990s [3] [4] and for the abundance of online registries established to help adoptees and birth family member find each other.

Carl Levin American politician

Carl Milton Levin is an American attorney and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. He was the chair of the Senate Committee on Armed Services and is a member of the Democratic Party.

The adoption reform movement groups supported ISRR and recommended their members register. Most state registries, agencies and courts also refer directly to ISRR as an option for those seeking reunification with family. There are many articles and references archived in newsletters, clippings and other resources. [5] Registration at ISRR is free because of the donations made by registrants, and the time given by volunteers.

Dear Abby referred to ISRR many times over the years. [6] Each time registrations would arrive by the thousands resulting in many matches. [7] One story is of an adoptee who registered 20 years to the day of when his birthmother's registration arrived. Both had read the same Dear Abby article. The adoptee had carried it in his wallet for twenty years. [8]

Dear Abby American advice column by Abigail Van Buren (pseudonym)

Dear Abby is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name.

There are around 225,000 active registrations, at any given time. ISRR was paper based until 2003, when the volunteers began an imaging project that took five years to complete. Now all forms are digitized.

Related Research Articles

The international adoption of South Korean children was triggered by casualties of the Korean War after 1953. The initiative was taken by religious organizations in the United States, Australia, and many Western European nations, and eventually developed into various apparatus that sustained adoption as a socially integrated system.

Family reunion

A family reunion is an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate. Sometimes reunions are held regularly, for example on the same date of every year.

Closed adoption is a process by which an infant is adopted by another family, and the record of the biological parent(s) is kept sealed. Often, the biological father is not recorded—even on the original birth certificate. An adoption of an older child who already knows his or her biological parent(s) cannot be made closed or secret. This used to be the most traditional and popular type of adoption, peaking in the decades of the post-World War II Baby Scoop Era. It still exists today, but it exists alongside the practice of open adoption. The sealed records effectively prevent the adoptee and the biological parents from finding, or even knowing anything about each other. The International Association of Adopted People does not support any form of closed adoption because it believes that closed adoption is detrimental to the psychological wellbeing of the adopted child. However, the emergence of non-profit organizations and private companies to assist individuals with their sealed records has been effective in helping people who want to connect with biological relatives to do so.

The Minnesota Transracial Adoption Study examined the IQ test scores of 130 black or interracial children adopted by advantaged white families. The aim of the study was to determine the contribution of environmental and genetic factors to the poor performance of black children on IQ tests as compared to white children. The initial study was published in 1976 by Sandra Scarr and Richard A. Weinberg. A follow-up study was published in 1992 by Richard Weinberg, Sandra Scarr and Irwin D. Waldman. Another related study investigating social adjustment in a subsample of the adopted black children was published in 1996. The study found that "(a) putative genetic racial differences do not account for a major portion of the IQ performance difference between racial groups, and (b) black and interracial children reared in the culture of the tests and the schools perform as well as other adopted children in similar families."

In the United States, adoption is permanently placing a minor with a parent or parents other than the birth parents.

General Register Office Wikipedia article covering multiple topics

General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in England and Wales, Scotland, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is or was the government agency responsible for the recording of vital records such as births, deaths, and marriages, which may also include adoptions, stillbirths, civil unions, etc., and historically, sometimes included records relating to deeds and other property transactions.

Open adoption is a form of adoption in which the biological and adoptive families have access to varying degrees of each other's personal information and have an option of contact. In Open Adoption, the adoptive parents hold all the rights as the legal parents, yet the individuals of the biological and adoptive families may exercise the option to open the contact in varying forms: from just sending mail and/or photos, to face-to-face visits between birth and adoptive families.

The Adoption Disclosure Register (ADR) is an adoption reunion registry operated by the government of Ontario, Canada. It implements the adoption disclosure provisions of the Child and Family Services Act.

Interracial adoption refers to the act of placing a child of one racial or ethnic group with adoptive parents of another racial or ethnic group.

Sealed birth records refers to the practice of sealing the original birth certificate upon adoption or legitimation, often making a copy of the record unavailable except by court order. Upon finalization of the adoption, the original birth certificate is sealed and replaced with an amended birth certificate declaring the adoptee to be the child of his or her adoptive parents, "as if" born to them. Many states, provinces and countries adopted this practice in the early to mid-20th century with the aim of protecting the adopted person from the shame of an illegitimate birth. Sealed or closed birth records are generally associated with closed adoption. Open records is generally referred to as the practice of opening original birth records to adult adoptees, and should not be confused with open adoption, which can occur with or without sealed records, depending on the laws of the state or province in which it is carried out.

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Adoption disclosure refers to the official release of information relating to the legal adoption of a child. Throughout much of the 20th century, many Western countries had legislation intended to prevent adoptees and adoptive families from knowing the identities of birth parents and vice versa. After a decline in the social stigma surrounding adoption, many Western countries changed laws to allow for the release of formerly secret birth information, usually with limitations.

The Uniform Adoption Act (1994) is a model law proposed by the U.S. Uniform Law Commission. It attempts to "be a comprehensive and uniform state adoption code that:

  1. is consistent with relevant federal constitutional and statutory law
  2. delineates the legal requirements and consequences of different kinds of adoption
  3. promotes the integrity and finality of adoptions while discouraging "trafficking" in minors
  4. respects the choices made by the parties to an adoption about how much confidentiality or openness they prefer in their relations with each other, subject, however, to judicial protection of the adoptee's welfare
  5. promotes the interest of minor children in being raised by individuals who are committed to, and capable of, caring for them."

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to adoption:

Japanese adult adoption is the practice in Japan of legally and socially accepting a nonconsanguineal adult into an offspring role of a family. The centuries-old practice was developed as a mechanism for families to extend their family name, estate and ancestry without an unwieldy reliance on blood lines. Still common today, adult adoption is a dynamic tool for social and economic mobility.

Concerned United Birthparents, Inc. (CUB), a non-profit organization established in 1976, is one of two primary nationwide organizations offering support to the biological parents of adopted people in the United States. The organization is credited with the creation of the term "birthparent."

Adoption in the Philippines

This article on refers to Adoption within the Philippine context. For the general term, see Adoption.

References

  1. ↑ Vilardi, Anthony S. "Search and Reunion: International Soundex Reunion Registry". American Adoption Congress.
  2. ↑ Moe, Barbara A. (2007). Adoption: A Reference Handbook (2nd ed.). ABC-CLIO. p. 46. ISBN   978-1-59884-029-2.
  3. ↑ "National Voluntary Reunion Registry". United States Senator Carl Levin. November 8, 1997. Archived from the original on April 13, 2011.
  4. ↑ "Adoption Event" (PDF). Clinton Library. November 21, 1998. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 10, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Newsletters". TRIADOPTION.
  6. ↑ "Dear Abby Columns". International Soundex Reunion Registry. Archived from the original on 2011-05-15.
  7. ↑ "After 1st Dear Abby Article" (PDF). International Soundex Reunion Registry.
  8. ↑ "Articles". International Soundex Reunion Registry.


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