It has taken quite some time to do this web site but I hope that it will help in finding my birth family. My wife has done all the hard work of setting this up for me as she is the computer person in the family. I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

I was born on May 11, 1961 in Alexandria Virginia in the old Alexandria Hospital on Duke Street. This hospital is no longer there but the new Alexandria Hospital is on Howard St. I was delivered by Dr. Leslie P. Gondor who is still in practice in Alexandria. I weighed in at 6lbs 1oz and was 20 " long.

My birth mother was 27 years old at the time. She was 5'2" tall, and weighed 120 lbs. She had an olive complexion with brown hair and hazel eyes. The worker described her as having sharp features . She was a high school graduate who had held clerical jobs. Her ancestry was German. She was Catholic.

My birth father was 31 years old at the time. He was 5'5" tall, stocky, brown eyes, reddish brown hair with a round face. He was a high school graduate and worked as a manager of a large food chain. He was Protestant.

My birth parents had been married and had two other children; a daughter who was 7 at the time and a son who was 2 years old. The 7 year old was in 2nd grade at a parochial school. The 2 year old was at home. They were living in a two bedroom apartment at the time. Both children had been baptized and the older one had made her First Communion.

At the time of my birth, my birth parents were separated and living apart. A divorce was in progress. My birth mother brought the action against my birth father on the grounds of desertion.

I have very little background on their families. My birth mother's family was from a city in the mid-west. Her father was deceased and her mother was alive and knew about the situation. My birth mother worked until 3 weeks before I was born. She did not see me but allowed the lawyers who were handling the divorce to take care of everything.

This is all I received from Catholic Charities in Burke, Virginia. I am still waiting on my non-identifying information from the state. They say that it can take up to four months to receive.

I just heard from the Dept. of Social Services and it's in the mail! I should be receiving the information next week sometime.(03/08/98)

I HAVE PART OF MY NAME! I WAS GIVEN THE NAME RAYMOND LEO AT BIRTH. I know it's not the most important like the LAST NAME, but it is something new! It gives me a little more to go on. I strongly urge those of you searching to get your information from the state. The cut out of my last name gives me a guess that is is a short name of maybe 5 or 6 letters. Amazing that I had to pay Catholic Charities $100.00 for my non id info and they didn't even give me my name at birth, and the state gave me my non id info for free and gave me my birth name. HUM? I will keep you posted of any new developments.

I finally got up the courage to call the hospital where I was born. Only having my first and middle name given at birth, I thought it was worth a try to get copies of my birth records. What a let down! They only keep the records for 20 years and after that they are destroyed! Not even kept on microfilm. The next avenue is writing a letter to the doctor who delivered me. I am not giving up yet!

I wrote to the doctor, he is still in practice in Alexandria Virginia where I was born. It has now been over 6 months since I wrote and he didn't even acknowledge the letter. I am going to try again.

I discovered the address of the attorney who handled the adoption for my adopted parents. I wrote a letter to him and got a phone call within a week from his daughter. He passed away this last summer (99) and she has been handling things for him. She was so very nice and understanding of my situation. She looked through files and didn't find anything, but she said she had a couple more places to look and if she found ANYTHING she would call. She did give me the name of his assistant back then and I am going to try to contact her and see if she remembers anything, doubtful, but I am leaving no stones unturned.

I have been searching for over five years now without much luck. However, this is one of the reasons of doing this web site as I want to be here when and if they start looking. You never know when that might be. I see new entries on guestbooks and registries all the time of people who are just starting to look. I hope that my birth mother understands that I know in my heart that she was doing the right thing for me as well as for her and my two siblings. I only want to share my life with them if they are willing and to let her know that I was raised with love by my adoptive parents and had a really good life. I am lucky to have the support from my adoptive father regarding my search. I am sure that I would have it from my adoptive mother also but she passed away about 13 years ago.

In my search I have found so many stories of other adoptions through Catholic Charities and have found so many discrepancies in the non id info. Sometimes I wonder if my information is right and am I looking for the right people with the right dates. If my info is correct, I often wonder if my siblings were told that the "baby" died at birth as it appears no one is looking for me. But I won't give up until I have found them and filled that hole in my heart.

I have found my birthfamily. Please see my reunion story.

Thank you for reading my story. I hope some of our searching experiences will help you in your search. If you have questions please email us.