*Normally* this information is copies of a bunch of papers where all identifying information is whited or blacked out.

There are some *tips and tricks* of how you can fill in the blanks.

1. If your copies are blanked out using a black magic marker, hold it up to a light, you can usually see what was typed this way.

2. IF your copies are blanked out using whiteout, sometimes you can (carefully) pick it off.

3. Sometimes... if your copies were whited or blacked out before they were copied, you can hold them to a UV light. (That is UV, like in tanning bed, not black light as in "wow this glows!") The people at the tanning spa near you, or sometimes local greenhouses/plant stores will have UV lights you can hold your papers up to (try not to feel foolish about this) Or most hardware stores carry "grow lights" for plants, which is the UV light you will want.

If there is no possible way to see through your papers to read what is underneath... here is a great idea that I used to find my cousin's birth mom last month.

4. Most people who are old enough to search now, were born before variable width fonts. (most of us were born before PC's and word processors were even invented) So *most* non-ID paperwork was typed up using typewriters, fixed width font.

You can take a ruler, and line it up vertically using a pencil, lightly draw lines so that you can count spaces. This seems ridiculous, but honestly, my cousin got his non-ID and called me saying, "This is WORTHLESS, there is NOTHING here!" I had him fax it to me... and in less than a week, he was writing his birth mom a letter.

Here is how I did it with my cousin, (information is changed to protect privacy)

His non-ID was copies AFTER it was blanked out, so we were not able to see through, and his wife took it to a tanning spa and saw nothing.

SO...

We lined up the ruler for EVERY blank on the paperwork.
We counted the spaces that were blanked out.

What was left in the non-ID (what was not blanked out):
1. Her first name was *Andrea*.
2. She was 5 feet 5 inches tall.
3. She had brown hair.
4. She had blue eyes.
5. She was --½ years old at the time of his birth.
6. She was born in 19--. In *ohio*.
7. She had two younger brothers,  their ages at the time of my cousin's birth.
8. Her parents ages at the time of my cousin's birth.
9. Her father's occupation at the time of my cousin's birth.

What we found out counting spaces:
1. His birth mom's last name had 7 letters in it.
2. We were told what state she was born in, but we found she was born in a town with 8 spaces.
3. We found her birth date was typed with a slash/date (example ----/44) in one place, but was typed out in another, (Example -------, 1944)
knowing she was --½ at the time of his birth, the only dates that would fit were from June 10-30 or July 10-31 (There would be a space between the name of the month and the number of the date, it had to be a single digit month with a double digit date. A double digit month has too many letters to fit in the typed out spaces.)
4. Non-ID stated she had two younger brothers, and told us their ages at the time of his birth. We learned one had a 7 digit first name, the other had a 9 digit first name. We were able to figure the years the boys would have been born, to make them the right age at the time of his birth.
5. At the time of his birth, she lived in a town with 10 letters in it. And last known address was a town with 10 letters in it.
6. She had a son, prior to my cousin's birth, that she was able to keep, who was 4 at the time of his birth, his name had 4 letters in it.

How we found her with this information:
Once we had a *round-about* date of birth for her and a first name, we had a searcher run it through a database ($20), we came up with 8 ladies named *Andrea* born in that state on those dates. Only two were possibilities. All the rest were too tall, too short,  or eye color didn't match.

Only 2 of these 8 were about the right height and eye color. (hair color can change)

One lives in Ohio, near a town with 8 letters.
The other lives 10 miles from where my cousin was born.

We thought, "What are the odds of someone named *Andrea*, who is the right height and eye color, being born in the right state, living so close to where he was born (In a town with 10 letters in it no less!)

So we decided to check this Andrea out first.

We were able to find a marriage license for her, in the town she is living in, giving us her maiden name, it had 7 letters, and it gave us the town she was born in, it had 8 spaces.

We called the town clerk in the town this Andrea was born in, asking for information on Andrea's birth certificate. (Birth certificates are OPEN records unless sealed, and unless you were adopted, the record is NOT sealed, amended certificates for adopted people are NOT sealed, only their original certificate is sealed. *Unless the amended cert was sealed for protection of the child, from abusive birth parents.)

From Andrea's birth certificate, we found her parents names, they were the right age to match what the non-ID said about them.

With this information, we asked the town clerk to look for her younger brother's certificates, we didn't have a first name, but did have a last name, and a year, we found out our Andrea had two younger brother's born in the right years. With the right number of letters in their first names.

I checked around a bit online, and found that Andrea's father came up on the SSDI (Social security death index) So we called the local library in the town her parents lived in, and got a copy of his obituary.

The obituary listed our Andrea, as having a son, the right age to have been 4 at the time of my cousin's birth, and having the right number of letters in his first name. It also told us what Andrea's father did for work, matching what non-ID had said he did.

BINGO!

We didn't search anymore. I honestly feel everyone has the right to find their birth family/adopted child... BUT, I do not feel it's right to check into people's personal lives... we stopped digging and started writing a letter.

What are the odds that there are:
1. Two women out there with the same first name.
2. Same number of letters in their maiden last name.
3. Born in a town with 8 letters, in the right state.
4. On those dates.
5. With blue eyes.
6. Who are 5foot 5 inches tall.
7. With two younger brothers the right ages.
8. With the right number of letters in the brother's names.
9. With a father who was in the right line of work, and the right age.
10. With a child the right age to be the older brother.
11. With the right number of letters in his name also.
12. Living so close to where my cousin was born.
13. In a town with 10 letters in it.