Michigan has a "mutual consent registry," designed to connect adoptees, birthparents, and siblings who all expressly indicate their willingness to be reunited. The registry is known as the Central Adoption Registry, or "Central Registry" for short. It's maintained in Lansing, by the FIA [Family Independence Agency].
The registry includes registrations from birth parents and siblings of adopted persons. Adoptees cannot register. Instead, adoptees can only request that an adoption agency or court check with the registry to see if a birthparent or sibling is registered there. An adoptee cannot directly request a check him or herself.
If you are an adoptee, when you obtain your non-identifying information you should make sure to ask the agency or court to check the registry for you.
If you are a birthparent or a sibling, you can ask for the form from the agency or court, and send it to the registry in Lansing. You can also download registration forms here:
http://www.michigan.gov/fia/0,1607,7-124-5452_7116_7128---,00.htmlAll this needs a huge caveat. This is a very imperfect system. Certain people on the MichiganSearching mailing list have reported that they and their siblings have all registered, yet no match has been made. Making things worse is a complete lack of publicity, which means that very few even know that Michigan has a registry. Finally, some "alleged" birthfathers, who have not formally acknowledged paternity, might have registered, but the state may not make the match because their paternity is not "official."
All of these makes the registry a hit and miss proposition, but it is still a tool that should be used by anyone searching. However, if no match is made, the searcher should in no way assume that the "other side" does not want to be found. There are simply too many other reasons why things may not have worked out.Additionally, everyone searching should be registered with the International Soundex Reunion Registry ["ISRR"].It's free, and a good place to have your information.
You can get more information here:
http://www.isrr.net/and download a registration form here:
http://www.isrr.net/registration.shtml
For more information on the central registry, see: http://www.michigan.gov/fia/0,1607,7-124-5452_7116_7125-14882--,00.html
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