There is information which you should know if you are a KSS Adoptee which we will not be posting publicly. Connect with us via our Facebook Groups for more info.

KSS Adoptees Are Welcome To Join The Private Facebook Group “KSS Cribmates”.

For Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptees ONLY, we recommend that you join the PRIVATE Facebook group called KSS Cribmates here.

*Please note that you must be able to demonstrate that you are a KSS Adoptee in order to join. Please be sure to answer the Membership Questions. Those who do not answer Membership Questions will not be accepted. Thank you!

We encourage you to “Like” our PUBLIC “Paperslip” Facebook page here.

What is a KSS Cribmate?

As a community, “KSS Cribmates” refers to adult Adoptees whose Korean Adoption Agency was Korea Social Services (KSS) in Seoul. KSS Adoptees were sent to the USA, Netherlands, Denmark + Switzerland from 1964-2011/12 when KSS stopped its Adoption business. However KSS continues to provide Post Adoption Services at its one remaining building in Seoul, where Adoptees can schedule to meet with a KSS social worker for a file review. We encourage KSS Adoptees ONLY to learn how to start or continue a Birth Family Search through KSS in Seoul here: Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search.

On an individual KSS Adoptee level, we use the term "Cribmate" loosely to describe Adoptees who were in KSS' system at around the same time. Because children were moved around from different orphanages and other facilities and eventually to KSS, because our collective understanding of KSS' system is so limited, and because KSS operated differently over time, it is really impossible in most cases to know if any particular Adoptees were absolutely at the same place at exactly the same time.

KSS in Seoul (called the "K.S.S. Receiving Home" on adoption documents), could only house so many children at a time, so in most instances, we believe that children were housed in feeder orphanages in or outside of Seoul until just before children were to be sent abroad for adoption. The exception to this was when children were very sick, in which case, they were sent to KSS in Seoul earlier, likely to take advantage of the "better" treatment facilities at KSS in Seoul.

Children were also kept in foster care, particularly perhaps after KSS began a foster program in the 1980s. According to KSS, they did not have an official foster program in the 1970s.

So to clarify, when we say "Cribmate", we mean an Adoptee who was in KSS' system at around the same time as another Adoptee.

We think it's meaningful for any Adoptees to have generally been in KSS' system at around the same time.