If you’re keen to search for Russian birth parents, there are various ways to go through your search, which can be complex and time-consuming but also fruitful if you apply time and effort. Here are some tips to maximise your chances of success.

1. Find Their Names
If your Russian birth parents immigrated to the West, their original name, such as Tchoudnowsky, might have been Anglicised to something like Taylor. So be aware of this before you begin your search and see if you can find out their original name.

2. Use an Agency or Platform
If you know that you’re looking for individuals with a Russian surname like Tchoudnowsky, you can use a genealogy website, service or agency to help with your search. The level of expertise that you buy in will affect the cost, but this can be an effective route as you will be harnessing the skills of professionals in this field.

3. Be Strategic and Structured
Finding Russian birth parents can be difficult and time-consuming, so structure your search so that you don’t end up missing leads or duplicating your efforts. Journal what you do and roadmap your investigations so that they are logical and don’t miss any areas.

4. Learn Some Russian
If you can learn some basic Russian, you will find it takes you a long way, especially when it comes to communicating with Russian agencies and people that might be able to help you. It will also add context and meaning to your search and can be a very worthwhile endeavour.

5. Accept Setbacks
Russia is a huge country and millions of its people have been displaced or emigrated over the years. So take your search slowly and patiently and accept that there will be setbacks at times.