The Adoption Chronicles project was created to record first-hand accounts of the adoption experience from adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents in the years between 1920 and 2020.
Memories from the modern age of adoption
The early 1920s marked the beginning of a new era of adoption, one that emphasized the safety and well-being of adopted children. Child welfare agencies were organized to conduct background checks on prospective adoptive parents and in-depth home studies became the norm. Eventually, birth parents were given the opportunity to take part in the process of selecting the family that would adopt their child and a greater emphasis was placed on maintaining connections, whenever feasible, with the child’s genetic extended family network.
These positive changes spawned decades of reunions and ongoing relationships between adopted children and their birth families. Over time, millions of lives were touched as all members of the adoption triad experienced their own unique journey.
The purpose of The Adoption Chronicles project is to record and showcase these experiences, so they can live on for decades to come.
Interested in more information or donating to the project?
We are currently working on curating stories for this inspiring project. The Adoption Chronicles website will be up and running by National Adoption month, November 2024.