Welcome House / Pearl S. Buck Foundation - (Pennsylvania, US).

Please Note: If you are adopted through this KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agency (in the time frames during which KSS worked with this Partner Western Adoption Agency) then you should initiate a Birth Family Search through KSS in Seoul. For KSS Adoptees ONLY, please see: Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search.


1964 - early 1980s (exact date in the 1980s is unknown but is probably around 1982): KSS adopts to Welcome House (WH) in the US.

• Source: KSS Adoptees
  

Welcome House appears to be KSS’ first Western Partner Adoption Agency.


*It should be noted that even though Welcome House was based in Pennsylvania, that Welcome House adoptees were sent to many East Coast states, including but not limited to Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Delaware, North Carolina, New Jersey, etc. - we do not know all the states to which Welcome House adoptees were sent, and there is even anecdotal evidence to suggest that KSS / Welcome House adoptees were sent to West Coast states like California. We also know of a handful of KSS private adoptions to Guam. It should be noted we do not know all the places to which KSS sent Adoptees. However, the we feel confident that the majority of KSS Adoptees were sent through KSS’ known list of Partner Western Adoption Agencies.

According to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, the parent organization of Welcome House which is still in operation:

“Originally founded by Pearl S. Buck, the Welcome House adoption program matched more than 7,000 orphans and children from around the globe with adoptive families in the United States. Many of the children were biracial. In June of 2014 the program was phased out because of changes in international adoption regulations.”

If you are a US KSS / Welcome House / Pearl S. Buck Foundation Adoptee, we highly recommend starting a Birth Family Search with KSS in Seoul.

Please do NOT start a Birth Family Search at KSS if you were NOT adopted through KSS in Seoul in partnership with Welcome House / Pearl S. Buck in the US.

If you are not sure what your Korean Adoption Agency was, you can find a list of all 4 major Korean Adoption Agencies and their corresponding Western Adoption Agencies here:

https://mfof.se/download/18.3fb844b2179a8fcfa4548418/1622550452816/Leaflet_Adoption%20Information%20Disclosure%20Service(Eng).pdf?fbclid=IwAR39DJh8oGHDwxE2VC65cPzwKtKqIM4scYiu87y3_FP7Ox1p5HOG4UoC4KQ

We highly recommend filing a simple and FREE FOIA request for your immigr. records as well in order to obtain all possible adoption records from the US side.

*Please Note: We believe that Welcome House in the US stopped working with KSS in Korea in the early 1980s, and started to work with Holt in Korea. The last case we know of between KSS and Welcome House was around 1982. After KSS stopped working with Welcome House, Welcome House began to work with Holt in Korea (please note that there is also Holt in the US). So if you were born / relinquished / adopted in the 1980s, just because you were adopted through Welcome House in the US, does not necessarily mean that you were adopted through KSS in Korea. You may have been adopted through Holt in Korea, and Welcome House in the US. If you are not sure, please feel free to contact us. Better yet, you can file a FOIA request to find out the most about your immigr. and adoption procedure. (Please note that filing a FOIA request will not initiate a Birth Family Search with KSS or with any Korean or US Adoption Agency).

What’s also confusing is that Holt in Korea sometimes collaborated with KSS in Korea to send children to the US through Welcome House. We believe that this was more rare, and only know of one example. However, this is a possibility for some KSS Adoptees.

The US adoption agency Welcome House is closed, though the Pearl S. Buck Foundation is still in operation in both the US and Korea (and other parts of the world).

If you enjoy going around in circles leading nowhere, feel free to attempt to get your adoption file from Bucks County Court of Pennsylvania.

However, we highly recommend filing a FOIA request for your immigr. records instead.

We know that you will likely get far more information about your adoption by filing a FOIA request and by starting a Birth Family Search with KSS in Seoul, rather than by attempting to get your adoption records through the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. However, we would not discourage you from trying any avenues which you wish to pursue.

The Relationship Between KSS and Welcome House (Pearl S. Buck Foundation):

From:

Framed by War: Korean Children and Women at the Crossroads of US Empire - By Susie Woo

• Pearl S. Buck talked directly to the wife of Korean dictator Syngman Rhee.
  

• Pearl S. Buck was active in Korea in 1965 / Child Placement Service (CPS) / where Kun Chil Paik was head of CPS.
  

• Welcome House is the first of KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agencies.