European
- Aberdeen, George Hamilton Gordon
- Abramovich, Roman
- Acre, Mark
- Adler-Collins, Je Kan
- Agnelli, Umberto
- Ahbez, Eden
- Albee, Edward Franklin
- Alda, Frances Jeanne
- Alexander the Great
- Alexander VI
- Allan, Jani
- Andrews, Ben
- Anstis, Toby
- Aristotle
- Arthur
- Ashcroft, Edith Margaret Emily
- Aspinall, John Victor
- Astor, Joshua
- Aucoin, Kevyn
- Audubon, John James
- Baca, Jimmy Santiago
- Bach, Johann Sebastian
- Baiul, Oksana
- Bálint, Lea
- Ballinger, John
- Bankhead, Tallulah
- Banks, John
- Barber, Dee Seton
- Barberie, Jillian
- Bartholomew, Freddie
- Bartram, John
- Batley, Robert Thompson (under Honorific Adoption)
- Bay, Michael
- Bayard, James Asheton, Sr.
- Beachley, Layne
- Bede, the Venerable
- Berglas, David
- Bergman, Ingrid
- Berlin, Andy
- Best, James
- Bird, A. John
- Björk, Carl Axel
- Blackburn, Tom (see Deacon, Joseph John)
- Bloodvessel, Buster
- Bolívar, Simón
- Boone, Daniel (under Honorific Adoption)
- Boson of Arles
- Boson of Arles
- Bowen, Jim
- Bradford, William
- Brady, John Green
- Brainerd, David
- Brakhage, Stan
- Brickley, James
- Brimeyer, Alex
- Brodkey, Harold
- Brosnan, Pierce
- Brown, Lester Raymond
- Brown, Matthew
- Brown, Rita Mae
- Burke, Andrew Horace
- Burke, Kathy
- Burton, Richard
- Bussell, Darcey Andrea
- Bute, John Crichton-Stuart
- Byrd, Robert C.
- Caddell, James
- Cain, Dean George Thomas
- Callahan, John
- Cameron, Rhona
- Capote, Truman
- Caprotti, Gian Giacomo
- Cardozo, Abraham
- Carl Louis John
- Carruthers, Kitty
- Carruthers, Peter
- Casals, Rosemary
- Casement, Roger David
- Castelo Branco, Camilo
- Catherine I
- Cerullo, Morris
- Chamfort, Sébastien-Roch
- Chanel, Gabrielle Bonheur
- Chaplin, Charles Spencer
- Chaplin, Sydney
- Chesterfield, Philip Stanhope
- Child Migrants
- Childebert II
- Childebert III Adoptivus
- Chisholm, Colin
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Church, Charlotte
- Church, John
- Clapton, Eric
- Clausen, Curt
- Clinton, William Jefferson
- Cochran, Jacqueline
- Cohn, Leopold
- Colden, Cadwallader
- Cole, George
- Cole, Lynnette
- Collins, Joely
- Commager, Henry Steele
- Connolly, Brian
- Conrad, Joseph
- Cookson, Catherine Anne
- Coombs, Herbert Cole (under Honorific Adoption)
- Cornwell, Bernard
- Cornwell, Patricia
- Crawford, Christina
- CuChulain
- Cullen, Eric Robertson
- Custis, George Washington Parke
- d'Alembert, Jean le Rond
- Dahlberg, Edward
- Daniels, Faith
- Danilova, Alexandra Dyonysievna
- Danson, Ted
- Dante Alighieri
- Davies, Daniel John
- Davies, William Henry
- de Beauharnais, Eugène-Rose
- de Beauharnais, Hortense
- de Rossi, Giovanni Battista
- Deacon, Joseph John
- Dean, James Byron
- Dermit, Édouard
- Dickinson, David
- Douglas, Anthony
- Douglas, Catherine
- Dreyer, Carl-Theodor
- Duchin, Peter Oelrichs
- Eaton, Peter
- Edward VI
- Ellison, Lawrence J. (Larry)
- Erichthonius
- Estés, Clarissa Pinkola
- Eumenes I
- Evans, Barry
- Farragut, David Glasgow
- Field, Shirley Ann
- Finch, Peter
- Finn Mac Cumhal
- Fisher, Florence Anna
- Ford, Gerald R.
- Fowler, Percy Leo
- Fox, Ruth May
- Foyster, Adelaide
- Francis, Benjamin
- Francisco, Peter
- Francisco, Peter
- Frank, Eva
- Frankovich, Mike J.
- Frelinghuysen, Frederick Theodore
- Fremstad, Olive
- Friedlander, Marti
- Fyodorova, Victoria
- Garrison, William Lloyd
- Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
- Gaveston, Piers
- Gay, John
- Genée, Adeline
- Genet, Jean
- German Democratic Republic
- Gertrude the Great
- Gilbert, Melissa Ellen
- Gill, Madge
- Gingrich, Newton Leroy
- Glazer, Tom
- Glazier, Sidney
- Goldwyn, Sam
- Graham, Eddie
- Grahame, Kenneth
- Grant, Julia
- Grayson, Larry
- Green, Tim
- Grey Owl
- Griffith, Calvin
- Gülnüs Ummetüllah
- Haas, Michael
- Hale, Matthew
- Hamilton, Alexander
- Hamilton, Scott Scovell
- Hancock, John
- Harry, Deborah
- Heiric of Auxerre
- Helena (under Nazi Germany)
- Heracles
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Hill, David
- Hill, Faith
- Hilton, Daisy & Violet
- Hirst, Damien
- Hitler, Adolf
- Hobsbawm, Eric
- Holt, Gary
- Hoover, Herbert Clark
- Hopkins, Antony
- Houdini, Harry
- Houston, Samuel
- Hugh of Cluny
- Hyde, Joseph Peter
- Hyde, Orson
- Hyllus
- Isidore of Seville
- Ivan VI
- Jackson, Andrew
- Jackson, Thomas (Stonewall)
- Jakszyk, Jakko M.
- James, Wendy
- Jameson, Derek
- Janissaries
- Jenkins, Robert Thomas
- Jesus Christ
- Jobs, Steven Paul
- Jones, David Ivon
- Jones, Stewart Whyte McEwan
- Joseph the Carpenter
- Juliana of Liège
- Karl XIV Johan
- Kean, Edmund
- Keats, John
- Kepler, Johannes
- Kereluk, Cynthia
- Kindertransport
- Kipling, J. Rudyard
- Klein, Hans-Joachim
- Knight, Edward Austen
- Kujau, Konrad
- Kutner, Lawrence
- La Marr, Barbara
- LaBadie, Florence
- Laborteaux, Matthew
- Laborteaux, Patrick
- Langstone, Frank
- Lapotaire, Jane
- Laurent, Robert
- Lear, Frances
- Lee, John Doyle
- Lehmann, Henry
- Leitch, David
- Lemke, Leslie
- Lennon, John Winston
- Leonard, Hugh
- Leonowens, Anna
- Lewis, Eleanor Parke Custis
- Liddell, Alice Pleasance
- Linkletter, Art
- Liotta, Ray
- List, Liesbeth
- Lloyd, Ellis
- Lopez, Charlotte Anne
- Lowell, Scott
- Mabon Mab Modron
- MacBride, Roger Lea
- Magnani, Anna
- Majors, Lee
- Mantegna, Andrea
- Mariner, William
- Martinson, Harry Edmund
- Mary the Virgin
- Massey, Edith
- Massow, Ivan
- Maugham, William Somerset
- McArthur, James
- McAuley, Catherine
- McCarthy, Mary Therese
- McCarthy, Thaddeus
- McCartney, Heather
- McDaid, Desmond
- McDermott, Dylan
- McKenzie, Richard B.
- McLachlan, Sarah
- McNab, Andy
- McQueen, Steve
- McShane, Mike
- Medwin, Michael Hugh
- Melcher, Terry
- Melville, Herman
- Melzi, Francesco
- Memminger, Christopher Gustavus
- Meyer, Julius
- Michener, James Albert
- Mici Plwm
- Midas
- Middlemiss, Philip
- Mikita, Stan
- Mills, Robert Scourfield
- Monaghan, Thomas
- Monroe, Marilyn
- Monroe, William Smith
- Montgomery, Lucy Maud
- Moore, Brian
- Morley, Eric Douglas
- Morrissey, Neil
- Mortara, Edgardo
- Morton, Samantha
- Munk, Kaj
- Murray, Andrew Buist
- Myners, Paul
- Naismith, James
- Naked, Bif
- Nazi Germany
- Nelson, Willie
- Nettles, John
- Newman, Robert
- Nicholson, Jack
- Norwegian Ruling Families
- O'Connell, James F.
- O'Connor, Hugh
- O'Neil, Robert Vincent, Jr.
- Oedipus
- Orphan Trains of the USA
- Palmer, James Alvin
- Pàscoli, Giovanni
- Paulger, Irene
- Pelzer, David J.
- Perrott, Caroline
- Peter III
- Phair, Elizabeth Clark
- Philip V
- Plato, Dana Michelle
- Poe, Edgar Allan
- Ponsonby, Sarah
- Powell, Peter John
- Presley, Priscilla Ann
- Primakov, Yevgeny Maximovitch
- Pryderi
- Pryse, Robert John
- Quinn, Katherine DeMille
- Radisson, Pierre-Esprit
- Raeburn, Henry
- Reagan, Michael E.
- Reagan, Nancy Davis
- Rees, Ebenezer
- Reynolds, George
- Robbins, Harold
- Roberts, Ernie (see Deacon, Joseph John)
- Roland
- Rollason, Helen
- Romulus and Remus
- Roosevelt, Eleanor
- Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
- Rowson, Martin
- Ruth, George Herman ("Babe")
- Saffian, Sarah Ruth
- Sargon I
- Schramm, Leo Paul
- Schuon, Frithjof (under Honorific Adoption)
- Schünemann-Pott, Friedrich
- Scully, Julia
- Seed, Michael
- Senser, Joe
- Seymour, Alan
- Shakers
- Sherman, William Tecumseh
- Shoah
- Short, William
- Slocum, Frances
- Smith, John Walter
- Smith, Joseph Fielding
- Smith, Robyn
- Soll, Joe
- Spain, 1936-75
- Spalding, Henry Harmon
- Spencer, Percy LaBaron
- Stanhope, Albert
- Stradling, John
- Strozzi, Barbara
- Swift, Jonathan
- Templer, James
- Thomas, Leslie John
- Thomas, R. David
- Thomas, William James
- Thomson, John
- Thorne, Grahame
- Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinrich
- Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista
- Tierney, Sydney
- Tito
- Tolkien, J.R.R.
- Tolstoy, Leo Nikolayevich
- Train, George Francis
- Transportees
- Trapp Family
- Troxler, G. William
- Truffaut, François
- Twardecki, Aloizy (under Nazi Germany)
- Tydings, Joseph Davies
- Utrillo, Maurice
- Valero, Helena
- Vanunu, Mordechai
- Verdingkinder
- Villon, François
- von Kleist, Heinrich
- von Lipp, Joseph
- Wallace, Edgar
- Waters, William R.
- Watton, Paul
- Weinstock, Arnold
- Weisner, Conrad (under Honorific Adoption)
- Welch, Bruce
- Westheimer, Ruth Siegel
- White, Donald Edwin
- Whitehead, Phillip
- Whitman, Marcus
- Wiesel, Eliezer
- Wild Boy of Aveyron (under Feral Children)
- Wilkins, George
- Wilkomirski, Binjamin
- William the Conqueror
- Williams, Jett
- Williams, John Owen
- Wine, Maria
- Winterson, Jeanette
- Wirt, William
- Wordsworth, Dorothy
- Wordsworth, William
- Zvi, Sarah
- Zweig, Stefan Jerzy
Aberdeen, George Hamilton Gordon
George Gordon was the grandson of the 3rd Earl of Aberdeen. His mother died in 1791 and his father in 1795, leaving him in the care of two guardians: William Pitt the Younger (the ... [more]
Abramovich, Roman
Abramovich was born in Saratov in southern Russia. His mother died when he was 18 months old, and his father was killed in a construction accident when he was four. He was first taken to li... [more]
Acre, Mark
Acre was an outstanding baseball and basketball player in high school in Corning, California. He then played basketball for the College of the Siskiyous and baseball and basketball for New ... [more]
Adler-Collins, Je Kan
Adler-Collins was the child of a military family who was taken into care at the age of three when his mother shot his father during a domestic dispute. He was abused in care for years, but ... [more]
Agnelli, Umberto
Agnelli was the youngest of seven children of the third generation of the greatItalian Fiat automobile manufacturing dynasty. The children's father died in 1935 ina plane crash and their mo... [more]
Ahbez, Eden
Ahbez is known as the First Hippy. His life story is unclear but one version has him born in 1908 (another after World War I) to a large and poverty-stricken family in Brooklyn. He and his ... [more]
Albee, Edward Franklin
Albee has won three Pulitzer Prizes. His 13 plays (including The Zoo Story, The Sandbox, Tiny Alice, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Three Tall Women) are among the most famous in 20th... [more]
Alda, Frances Jeanne
Alda (her stage name) was born Fanny Jane Davis in New Zealand. Her parents divorced when she was 15 months old, and her mother, a professional singer, died in 1884, after which young Fanny... [more]
Alexander the Great
Alexander was one of the greatest generals in history. His empire stretched from Greece to Egypt, Asia Minor and as far east as the River Ind in India. He was born the son of Philip II of ... [more]
Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI was born into the wealthy and corrupt Borgia family of Valencia, Spain, and adopted by his maternal uncle, Alfonso Borgia (later Pope Callistus III). He collected religiou... [more]
for all of your adoption needs including:
Note: Our authors are dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent, and open conversation about adoption. The opinions expressed here may not reflect the views of Adoption.com.