Adoptee Searcher's Handbook

MADELENE FERGUSON ALLEN
Aboard Breaksea Girl in Auckland Islands photo credit Bronwyn Pavey	Madelene Ferguson Allen has been reunited with her birth family since 1984. This was long before the internet became a valuable tool so it took her seven long years of patient (and impatient) slogging. The story of her search, full of details, is told in her first book Reunion, Search for my Birth Family, published by Stoddart in 1992. For 27 years Madelene has been active in the fight for adoptees to be granted the same rights as other Canadians — the right to their heritage, and most importantly — the right to their medical history. She has been affected first hand by the latter — information from her birth mother has saved her life. She has been a member of Parent Finders and is a past editor of the Montreal PF newsletter and has spoken at meetings. She was involved in the Ontario ADR task force and was a invited speaker for the first Mothers’ Day Rally at Queen’s Park in Toronto . Madelene has used her hobby of web design to be webmaster for Camp Ouareau and the Canadian Council of Natural Mothers, as well as developing her own pages for Invercauld Publications, which makes adoption books from around the world available to Canadians. She has recently retired from 30 years as owner - director of Camp Ouareau, a girl's camp in Quebec.
Although her home is on an old 50 acre tree farm overlooking Lake Huron, a large part of her heart remains in New Zealand. The attachment began when she discovered that her birth great-grandfather, Robert Holding, was a survivor of a shipwreck on the sub–Antarctic Auckland Islands. Had she not discovered her birth family, Wake of the Invercauld would never have been written. (Nominated by McGill-Queen’s University Press for the 1997 Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction). She is a member of The Writers’ Union of Canada. Since her first trip to the Aucklands in 1993, Madelene has been privileged to have received 3 more permits from the New Zealand Government to continue her work on the islands which has extended to researching the Enderby Settlement (1849—1852). She helped with the research of Enderby Settlement Diaries and is now working on a book about the search for the Gold of the General Grant. An experienced researcher, Madelene continues to use her writing and web design skills to help others in their search.