In a world where so many stories disappear with time, the Adoption Chronicles Project exists to make sure adoption stories are not forgotten. Founded by Richard Pearlman, the project is built on one central idea: to chronicle the modern era of adoption before its voices fade away.
When explaining the project, Pearlman starts with the meaning of the word itself. “A chronicle is a factual or written account of important or historical events in the order of their occurrence,” he says. “A record, a related series of events in a factual and detailed way. A description of past events. A record in chronological order making a historical record. So that’s the purpose of the Chronicles project.”
That focus on documentation shapes everything the project does. The Adoption Chronicles is not designed to argue one side of adoption or to promote a single narrative. Instead, it aims to create a detailed historical record of how adoption has shaped lives over the past century. Pearlman describes what he calls “the modern era of adoption, which really ran from 1920 to 2020.” According to him, that hundred-year period marked a unique chapter in American and international adoption history. “Where there used to be thousands of adoptions in a year, now there are just hundreds or few,” he explains. “I saw this as the end of an era, and I wanted to document that.”
The project collects first-person accounts from adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, and professionals who worked in the field. These stories are shared through written narratives and video interviews, creating a growing digital archive that reflects adoption from multiple perspectives. What makes the Adoption Chronicles important is their honesty. Pearlman does not pretend that adoption is simple. “The stories are complicated,” he says plainly. “There’s no easy path here. There’s no everything’s going to be great. It’s not all sunny stories.”
That honesty is central to the project’s mission. Some birth parents describe longing for contact with children they placed for adoption, only to be rejected. Some adoptees talk about using DNA testing to search for biological relatives and discovering unexpected truths. Some stories end in reunion and healing, while others end in silence. “There’s no one story where everybody says, ‘Oh, this worked out great,’” Pearlman explains. “It’s complicated.”
By presenting this range of experiences, the Adoption Chronicles challenges stereotypes that have surrounded adoption for decades. Pearlman remembers that when he was growing up, “there was always this thought that when a child is adopted, something’s wrong with them.” That assumption, he believes, shaped public perception for years. Through the Chronicles, he hopes to show that adoption does not define a person’s destiny. “I don’t think adoption is a major factor or a factor at all in determining whether or not children and parents are close,” he says. “Families are challenging whether or not adoption is a part of the family.”
In many ways, the Adoption Chronicles Project is about expanding how people think about family. Pearlman describes adoption as something that widens connections rather than replacing them. “When a child is adopted, everyone related to that child becomes part of a larger extended family network,” he explains. This includes “both sides… the genetic family or the birth family and the adoptive family.” Adoption, in this sense, does not erase one identity to create another. Instead, it builds something more layered and interconnected.
The site itself allows contributors to tell their stories in their own words, preserving the nuance of their experiences, rather than reducing experiences to statistics. Viewers can watch interviews, read narratives, and explore different perspectives without being guided toward a single conclusion. The emphasis remains on recording, not judging.
The project was sparked by significant change occurring in the world of adoption, as adoption practices have changed significantly in recent decades. International adoption has declined sharply. “Virtually all international adoption from Europe is not happening anymore. And adoption from China is not happening anymore. And I don’t think there’s any adoptions from Vietnam,” Pearlman says. Domestically, placements have also decreased. “The biggest change is that fewer and fewer women and men are choosing adoption as a way to plan for a child’s future.”
For the Adoption Chronicles, this shift means that the experiences of those involved in the earlier era may soon be lost if they are not recorded. The project seeks to preserve those voices while they can still speak for themselves. Without documentation, future generations might not have personal testimony for these stories, only hearing about them secondhand.
Another important aspect of the project is its invitation to participate. Pearlman believes that storytelling has power beyond documentation. When asked what advice he would give to those hesitant to share their adoption stories, he says simply, “If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.” He believes that speaking openly about adoption experiences can help others.“Sharing your experience helps other people come to terms with their experience.”
This sense of shared humanity gives the Adoption Chronicles a deeply personal tone, even though its purpose is historical. It recognizes that adoption is not just a legal process but an emotional one. It acknowledges joy and pain in the same space. Most importantly, it resists easy answers. “There’s no everything’s going to be great,” Pearlman says again. “It’s complicated.”
Looking ahead, the project may expand into books that further document adoption’s evolution. Pearlman envisions volumes that serve as broader historical accounts of the field. Yet even as it grows, the core mission remains the same: to create a record.
If readers take one idea away from the Adoption Chronicles, Pearlman hopes it is this: “That the experience of adoption touches many, many lives, but it doesn’t determine someone’s outcome.” Adoption shapes families, but it does not define them entirely. It is one part of a larger human story.
