I’ve gotten some questions about using/hiring a searcher to help located birth parents. So I have decided to write about it and see if it helps anyone else. Now before I start, I have been searching for my birth parents for the past year or so, on and off. Most of what I was doing was research. By that I mean looking at other Chinese adoptees who have found their birth parents, asking them how they started etc. I got a lot of information and then I was getting ready to start a post on a Chinese form. That’s when my mom told me of this woman named Jane.
Back in September 2016, a birth family contacted a woman they met saying how they wished to find their daughter that was given up in 1995. This woman decided to go to FCC and share their story in hopes the daughter is found. That’s when this woman Jane appeared. Apparently she had been helping families with adoptees help locate their birth families. Or at least be the person doing the groundwork. Now, to me, searchers weren’t a new thing I was hearing about. In fact there is a very well known woman named, “Xixi” who is from Guangxi Province. (Note: She seems to have the highest success rate of all the “known” searchers and the most experience.) Anyways, I never thought to contact Xixi because she wasn’t near where I was from, (Hefei, Anhui). However, Jane is. She currently lives in Hefei, Anhui. I got in contact with her via email, (her email was old so she didn’t check it often. WeChat seems to be the way of things now.) She asked me some questions such as the notary for when I was adopted, the earliest photo I have of me, and the most current. I gave her all the information I knew (which wasn’t much, I don’t even have a finder listed on my notary.) Jane said she would post on an internet forum about my search. She did ask for money once, but it was because she wanted to hire people to put posters around the town. I decided to see if she could just post one on the internet first (because college student = low on $$)
There is also a blog called, “research-china.blogspot.com” and they have an article about all the most known searchers in China. The site is run by a guy named Brian Stuy. He’s been pretty helpful. I have emailed him on occasion about questions I have.
So that’s really where I am at now. I know I said I contacted Jane back in the fall of 2016 but I’ll be honest I was so scared to actually go through with putting up ads and such. I’m afraid of the failure of not finding them. But my grandma passed away in February and that’s what pushed me to finally says yes to her posting the ad.
To wrap this up, I just want to say, if any of you guys are looking into searchers make sure they don’t take your money and run. While Jane is helping me, I am also having my native Chinese friend translate what she’s posting and such, so I KNOW nothing is mistranslated. I’m making sure I can do as much as I can here in the states. I’m also probably going to make a list of resources that I’ve used and that have helped me with my search in another post.
Below is the message the searcher, Jane, posted on a form in Hefei.
