[Born1944]

Hi Jen,

Congrats on your "find" for your brother. Being an angel is rewarding and challenging. It can be a thankless job or the total opposite.

I became an angel after many years of practising and through many trials and errors. I read ALOT of emails, posts on groups and every site I could that dealt with searching. Many times people get into genealogy as well or vice versa. One friend, who is helping a relative search, started in genealogy and when the realtive was ready he used what he had learned to search.

Reading books on adoption searches is good as well. Many times various angels pay for access to databases or have copies of birth indexes that can no longer be purchases. These are the priceless angels! They are the ones willing to do some looking into a source that has become rare. There are those who will go to the local library to look up addresses and numbers from old phone books. (This was something I did alot of when I had free time and gas was not so expensive as I live less than 20 miles from downtown LA and the HUGE library there which has phone books that go back MANY years for all over southern california.)

Try the things you read for yourself. Test websites capabilities.

I have made "finds" in just minutes and sometimes it has taken many years. Two weeks ago I had a friend share she had given a child up and it took literally less than 3 minutes to find him. Had it been 10 years ago it would have talen me days or months. It all comes from learning what is available and making the contacts with other angels as well. It takes building trust with people as well. I try to share whatever resources I have available (whether they are free ways or if I pay for access to databases.) You see many angels pay for access to some sites but share it with the world of those touched by adoption for free. This is my way of giving back to those who helped me over the past 20 years, by helping others find their families.

One last thing. People are leary of search angels because sometimes there are those who want to be paid. Because of them I have people who want a search angel and will then turn around and only give me half of their info and I spend worthless effort and wasted time searching only to find info they already had all along. That is the one drawback in being an angel. It is hard to build that trust at times. In this age of scams and identity theft I do not blame people. But to expect you to search on little info when they already have info and are NOT willing to share it. IT was then a waste of time that I could have spent helping someone else. Okay off my soapbox.

I wish you the best and many blessings as you learn, grow and share your caring spirit with others.

Tina