Please Note: Please do NOT contact KSS if you are NOT a KSS Adoptee. IF you were adopted through ANY of these OTHER Korean Adoption Agencies listed below, then the information on this page does NOT apply to you.
Holt
Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) - formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS)
Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS)
KSS (Korea Social Service) Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary Examples and Translation Keys.
We now know that KSS used the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the late 1960s - 2000s: in other words, KSS appears to have used the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary to record additional information about the origins of a child, sometimes (though not always) including birth parent name/s and info. about sibling/s throughout the majority of its adoption history, *from 1964-2012. Very often KSS included information about a child’s origin on the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary which was NOT included on the English Adoptive Child Study Summary, which was provided to the Western Adoptive Parents prior to the child’s arrival as an early part of the process of matching a child to a prospective set of Western adoptive parents. (Please note that KSS matched children to one of its Partner Western Adoption Agencies - not to individual prospective adoptive parents).
*KSS may not have used the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary in the VERY early 1960s, but the only way to find out for sure is to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary if you were from this time period.
The style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary changed over time, but the purpose remained the same: to secretly record more information about the origins of the child. The English Adoptive Child Study Summary was frequently used by KSS to record deliberately false information in order to Orphanize a child so that s/he could be legally adopted through KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agencies.
However, it should be noted that not ALL information on all KSS Adoptees’ English Adoptive Child Study Summary is false. The difficulty is that without a KSS Adoptee being in reunion with her or his DNA confirmed birth parent/s who tell/s the truth about the Adoptee’s relinquishment, there is no way to know whether or not the information on the English (and Korean) Adoptive Child Study Summary is true or false.
Because KSS Adoption paperwork (like the majority of all Korean Adoption paperwork) was so often deliberately falsified, we cannot more strongly recommend that ALL Korean Adoptees take all of the DNA tests they possibly can. DNA is the only truth in Korean Adoption.
We still however strongly encourage you to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary, as this document may contain the most truthful information about your origins. If you are a KSS Adoptee, learn how to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary here.
Below are examples of the different styles of the KSS Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary, and their translation keys.
Below: Late 1960s / 1970s / early 1980s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
Below is the 3 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the late 1960s / 1970s / early 1980s.
The Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary is the KSS document most likely to contain the more truthful information about your origin - sometimes, though not always - including birth parent name/s and sibling name/s.
To understand the difference between the Korean vs. English Adoptive Child Study Summary, please see the Orphanization page.
We do not know exactly when KSS changed its document style for the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary , but sometime around the mid to late 1980s, KSS began to use a different style of document. KSS apparently changed the style of this document several times - however, the content and purpose of the document remained more or less the same - to record the more “truthful” information about a KSS Adoptee’s origin, sometimes though not always including birth parent and sibling information.
Learn how to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary here.
Above is the 3 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the late 1960s / 1970s / early 1980s.
Hanja Name of Form: 入養兒童調書
(Hanja is a mixture of Chinese and Korean used in Korea mostly in the 1970s and prior) .
KSS colloquially refers to this form in English as the “Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary”.
We do not know exactly when KSS changed its document style for the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary , but sometime around the mid to late 1980s, KSS began to use a different style of document, an example of which is below.
Translation Key for the 1970s - early 1980s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
Click here to download the Translation Key for the 3 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary (Word format).
Note to translators: You can just fill in the spaces of the Word document linked above with the English translations of the Korean information. The Hanja (Chinese / Hangul) categories of this document have already been translated.
The images below are just another visualization of the Translation Key for this document.
Below: Example of and Translation Key for the (Mid - Late?) 1980s / 1990s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
Below is the 2 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the 1980s / 1990s. This document may appear as one long form.
KSS changed the style of Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary KSS used in the 2000s: from around 2000 - 2012 when KSS closed its adoption business (please see below this section for the 2000s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
We do not know exactly when KSS changed its document style for the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary , but sometime around the mid to late 1980s, KSS began to use a different style of document. KSS apparently changed the style of this document several times - however, the content and purpose of the document remained more or less the same - to record the more “truthful” information about a KSS Adoptee’s origin, sometimes though not always including birth parent and sibling information.
Learn how to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary here.
Above is the 2 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the mid - late 1980s / 1990s. This may appear as one long form.
KSS used a different style of Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary KSS used in the 2000s: from around 2000 - 2012 when KSS closed its adoption business.
We do not know exactly when KSS changed its document style for the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary , but sometime around the mid to late 1980s, KSS began to use a different style of document, an example of which is above.
Translation Key for the (Mid - Late?) 1980s / 1990s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
Click here to download the Translation Key for the 2 page (1 long page) Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary (Word format).
Note to translators: You can just fill in the spaces of the Word document linked above with the English translations of the Korean information. The Korean categories of this document have already been translated.
The image above is just another visualization of the Translation Key for this document.
Update! Below: Example of and Translation Key for the 2000s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary.
Below is the 2 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the 2000s. This document appears as 2 separate pages.
This was likely the style of Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary KSS used in the 2000s: from around 2000 - 2012 when KSS closed its adoption business.
We do not know exactly when KSS changed its document style for the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary , but sometime around 2000, KSS began to use a different style of document. KSS apparently changed the style of this document several times - however, the content and purpose of the document remained more or less the same - to record the more “truthful” information about a KSS Adoptee’s origin, sometimes though not always including birth parent and sibling information.
It appears that even in the 2000s, that the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary has slightly more information than the English Adoptive Child Study Summary. So it is definitely worth requesting if you have not already done so.
*Note: We do not yet have a standardized translation key for the 2000s style of the Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary, but we will update the site when we do.
Learn how to request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary here.
Above is the 2 page Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from the 2000s.
We believe that KSS likely used this style of Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from around 2000 - 2012. KSS stopped processing adoptions around 2012.
See the Translation Key below.