Project: Adoption Angels/Guidelines for Angels

Categories: Adoption Angels Project


Draft: Langholf-2 11:26, 14 December 2015 (EST)

Adoption is emotional and sensitivity is needed in working with adoptees/birth families in finding information and connections. Here are guidelines for our WikiTree Adoption Angels:

Contents

What Angels Should Do

What roles do we see angels filling? What are the goals we want to achieve?

  1. Help Adoptees to set up their WikiTree Profiles
  2. Help Adoptees to find information needed for a bio family search such as birth records, non-identifying information and the start of DNA testing
  3. Help Adoptees use the information they have to search for bio families
  4. Help Bio Parents find adopted children who are now adults
  5. Help Adoptees who have found their bio parents to get started on creating their biological trees
  6. Help in searches for bio parents for deceased members of the family further back on the tree (such as grandparents)
  1. Help Adoptees who have found their bio parents to make connections with extended bio family ????

What Angels Shouldn't Do

How involved should angels be?

At what point do we direct them to other adoption groups for help?

What should Angels NOT do?

  • Research for minor children(under the age of 18).
  • Make contact for a searcher.
  • Pressure any individual to make contact once the lost family is located.
  • Assist someone other than the adoptee without the adoptee contacting the Angel to give consent.
  • Should not charge for their services.

Adding Info to WikiTree

Should we encourage people to add their info to WikiTree?

Should Angels be entering information on the behalf of the adoptee?

No, As Angels we should be helping the adoptee/birth relative learn how to post their information to WikiTree.

Quick Reference Links

These quick links can be cut and pasted as is to the comments section of profiles.

Getting Started on Wikitree:
[[How_to_use_WikiTree#Getting_Started|How to use Wikitree]].

Getting Started with Genealogy:
[[Getting_Started_With_Genealogy|Getting Started with Genealogy]]

Adding to WikiTree
[[Adding_to_WikiTree|Adding to WikiTree]]

Biography Section, a great place to help you with writing a biography
[[Biographies|biography]].

The Help Index, menus, upper right of all pages > Help > Help Index.

Disclaimer

Should we have a disclaimer that we send to anyone who asks for help?

If so, what should the wording be?

Communication

We have a google group for the project. It's set up where anyone can post to it but only Angels will see the posts. If an angel replies to a post, that person who wrote the post will be able to see it. Do we want a group where people searching can interact with each other? Or do we just want to refer them to groups elsewhere for support?

Sensitivity

What are the points we need here on how to handle sensitivity issues in regards to both information and emotion?

  • While anyone can help an adoptee/birth family there are Angels who are also adoptees and/or birth family members. Angels could contact one of them if they feel they aren't sure how to handle the emotional aspect of helping in these situations.
  • We can guide and encourage someone on how to handle information, whether or not to put it in WikiTree or share it elsewhere but we still need to be sensitive to the fact that it's their choice what they decide to do.

Types of Angels

Maybe it would help to have a list of different types of angels and the role they would play. Here are a few that come to mind:

Location Angels - Angels who can help with searching in specific areas

DNA Angels - Angels who can help someone working with DNA

Emotion Angels - Angels who can help deal with the emotional aspects of searching

Adoptee Angels - Angels who help adoptees

Birth Family Angels - Angels who help birth families

Cousin Angels - Angels who help DNA matched cousins with finding the connection.



This page was last modified 02:26, 31 December 2021. This page has been accessed 606 times.