[Fvmfrctt]

Not unusual for thais to keep their last name after having kids. Computers and the ability to track people did not come into active use in thailand until the late eighties. And, it was almost comon for thai men to have "wives" in different parts of thailand. Sometimes these wives were on the books and sometimes they were not. Common law marriages were the norm years ago. Many thais here in tacoma have marriage cerimonies but don't register their marrige. Your husband's situation is quite different. You are quite right in having your husband write immigration for his immigration pqpers. His adoption pqperwork would be included.

[@Aerodyno@]

KJK, your husbands last name would be the grandparents last name? correct? or has he changed it. I have two adopted thai's .. MY wife's kids. I wrote immigration a long time ago to get what info they had on them. They sent me the originals of all documents. To include their 'birth" registrations. I would think that the complete file of names of all parties would be on those immigration documents. Even tho the mother abandoned him. Which, by the way was quite common in the past in thailand. Grand children in thailand are very often left with grand parents to raise. If you think the bio mother is estranged because she left your husband as a todler with the grand parents, you would be incorrect. It's worth a try I think to get the immigration papers if your in-laws wrote to immigration for the documents. It's also possible that your husbands adoptive grand parents have those papers somewhere in their personal records. It is possible that, well, the grandparents used your husband's status as a mxed blood farang to be allowed to move to the USA because they adopted your husband as a todler. The ;Us gov't approved many immigrant visa's years ago when the plight of mixed blood todlers was learned by US congresspersons. Adoptive grand pqrents where also given immigrant status. You mention that your not really clear on the process. Well, quite true. You could be going where your husbands adoptive grand parents don't want to go. Many , many thais and vietnamese adopted their grand children because they would then be eligible for immigrant status to the USA, if the child was of mixed blood and that fact could be proven. I'll make a guess and say your husband's bio mom is closer then you think.

My husband is not mixed his parents were both Thai, and we do have his birth certificate and some of the adoption papers. But, what you are saying is interesting and somewhat correct, I think the grandparents know more than they are saying. It is difficult for me to fully understand because I don't speak Thai, but I have heard so many different versions of the story it's not even funny. At first I thought it was because they don't really know, but I'm beginning to think that lack of clarity and changing stories is just the nature of Thai culture Thanks for the idea of looking through the adoption papers, maybe there will be some info in there. And yes his last name is the same as his grandparents but not the same as the mothers. He does know her name though.

[@Aerodyno@]

It's not me It's my husband. Yes his grandparents adopted him, and live here in the US. They had to go through a huge process in Thailand to adopt him and have a lawyer or judge (I'm not really clear on the process) certify that his mother had "abandoned" him in order to do so, since they couldn't find her to sign the adoption papers. So The immigration records would only list his grandparents not his mother.

[Dominick Yo]

Definitely possible.

FaranginPhetch mentioned the District Office (Amphur) but unless you are in Thailand and know the precise Office to go to, there isn't much you can do there.

What you can do in regards to her location (and the correct Amphur) is to go through a lawyer. Thailand doesn't have much in the way of 'privacy' laws and so it's pretty easy to find someone via a cop/detective/lawyer.

Really, you can hunt down any Thai (if he/she is not on the run like!) if you just flash the cash.

One Amercian guy contacted me about one year ago via www.thai-blogs.com and asked me to help track down a ladyboy he once befriended via a TV documentary she was once on. I really tried my best but no luck, because on the documentary and her website she had used only pseudonyms. Eventually, after a few fruitless days, i pointed him in the direction of a foreign private detective i had once done some translation work for.
Abradabra, about six months later, he sent me an email not only saying that somehow the detective had managed to locate her but that he was flying to Thailand for a date - they had been chatting on MSN.

With the use of the Internet, i did locate one Thai-American young women, living in the States. Her mother had asked me to help find her after she had dumped her there two decades ago with her former husband. I knew perfectly that i had found her but her daughter just wouldn't reply to my e-mails. I dont really blame her as i started to realize that the only reason that she wanted to get back in with her daughter was because she was now destitute with no cash. You can say the reason for wanting to contact was to sponge!

[Fvmfrctt]

KJK, your husbands last name would be the grandparents last name? correct? or has he changed it. I have two adopted thai's .. MY wife's kids. I wrote immigration a long time ago to get what info they had on them. They sent me the originals of all documents. To include their 'birth" registrations. I would think that the complete file of names of all parties would be on those immigration documents. Even tho the mother abandoned him. Which, by the way was quite common in the past in thailand. Grand children in thailand are very often left with grand parents to raise. If you think the bio mother is estranged because she left your husband as a todler with the grand parents, you would be incorrect. It's worth a try I think to get the immigration papers if your in-laws wrote to immigration for the documents. It's also possible that your husbands adoptive grand parents have those papers somewhere in their personal records. It is possible that, well, the grandparents used your husband's status as a mxed blood farang to be allowed to move to the USA because they adopted your husband as a todler. The ;Us gov't approved many immigrant visa's years ago when the plight of mixed blood todlers was learned by US congresspersons. Adoptive grand pqrents where also given immigrant status. You mention that your not really clear on the process. Well, quite true. You could be going where your husbands adoptive grand parents don't want to go. Many , many thais and vietnamese adopted their grand children because they would then be eligible for immigrant status to the USA, if the child was of mixed blood and that fact could be proven. I'll make a guess and say your husband's bio mom is closer then you think.

[Fvmfrctt]

KJK.n your post you mention that your grandparents brought you to the USA many years ago. Are you saying that your grand parents no longer live in the USA? If they still live in the USA and brought you over then you would have had to have a visa (green card) issued by the US consulate in thailand. And you would have a last name of your grand parents if they dopted you. Many years ago their was no computer system used in thailand to track people and get info on them. Today there is. US Immigration will have an immigrant record on you. Is your mother really estranged? It is much easier to find someone in thailand today then years ago. I'd write US immigration for your record. They will send copies of your file to include house registration with names of parents spelled out., Probably even got an address printed From there , a branch of the thai gov't could check their data bases and locate her if she is still in country.

[@Aerodyno@]

finding someone in thailand? ha!!! i read an article about an old malasian lady who couldnt speak english or thai, caught a bus to bangkok to see her sister and her husband found her 20 years later, seems she got on the wrong bus and went on a train and eventually ended up in chiang mai. according to the article she had to beg and borrow to survive until she was eventually found.

that's encouraging thanks


So then am I correct in assuming it will be very hard to do over the phone/mail/internet without actually traveling to Thailand?


Also, as far as Thai culture goes, is there a chance that she would not want to be contacted by him? She is likely remarried with other children and it's possible that her new family wouldn't even know she had a son over 20 years ago.

[@Aerodyno@]

Thank you very much for the info.

[@Aerodyno@]

I have no idea where we would start with this, but my husband has been thinking about looking for his mother. She left him with his grandparents in Bangkok when he was a toddler (under some crazy circumstances that I do not understand) and they brought him to the US as a child and he has been here ever since. He knows her name and could possibly find out where her family is from ("in the countryside" is all I know) from his relatives. But that's about it. How hard do you think it would be to find her? Any ideas?

[Illisezek]

finding someone in thailand? ha!!! i read an article about an old malasian lady who couldnt speak english or thai, caught a bus to bangkok to see her sister and her husband found her 20 years later, seems she got on the wrong bus and went on a train and eventually ended up in chiang mai. according to the article she had to beg and borrow to survive until she was eventually found.

[ireleda]

If he can find out what Amphur to check with and her name then thats as good a place to start as any.