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Has anyone tried it? even as a long shot.
I don't know my father. I know my birth mother, but that's a path I can't go down. No ifs, buts or maybe's. That path is firmly closed.
I have a short form birth certificate. So I know I was born February 1960 in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Quite a way from where my birth mother lived then.
A father is not named.
I know my birth mother's mum and dad, but they passed away many years ago.
They brought me up, until I started full time work aged 15 and started renting at 16 years old.
There were no other blood relatives.
I've also tried to trace friends.
Once a drunk family acquaintance said my dad was an American airman based in Northolt. Who had died in an accident. The only reason that stuck was I know my birth mother danced a lot there.
So sorry about the detail, it's just so if you've tried DNA tracing, you'll see I've got nothing to go on. It would be pot luck.
The DNA sites are popular in the US and if a family member has done the test, they'd have their samples. I don't know if they then inform both parties about the match though, and I know that some folk have set up support groups on Facebook because of results that have come out...Have you considered that your Dad's family may 1. have no idea you exist, 2. might not welcome the news?
Sorry to be a downer, but I'm generally not a fan of these sites really, they seem to be not very good at helping to deal with the fall out they sometimes create.
I had thought of that, and I wouldn't pursue things. I'd just like some little thing, even if it's just to know my geographical origins.
The limitation of those DNA things is your genes aren't compared to the genes of 'all humans'. They only compare to the genes of all that company's other customers. (which tends mostly to be white Americans because they're fascinated to know whether they are 1/64th Irish)
If you took one it would doubtless show genetic links to Americans because all white Americans have white European ancestry. Thats not really showing a family relationship its just showing what populations your ancestors were part of.
These companies market quite aggressively in Europe not because we have the same interests in origins that yanks have, but because it gives more detail to the results their American customers get.
In his book / series 'How to Argue with A Racist' Adam Rutherford undertook one of the consumer DNA tests and it reported back various nuances of different aspects of Northern European ancestry buried deep in his DNA....... and failed to notice that he's half Indian because they don't have any Indian customers
I'd start with a full birth certificate.
Mine showed I was adopted and my birth name was the same as my mothers maiden name, which was changed when my parents married (when I was two)
Neither of these details were on the short form version
Maybe worth a go; my mother located a half sister in Australia and a raft of cousins using, I think, Ancestry. She discovered a lot around the circumstances of her birth and adoption which helped her despite the passage of time. She has a good relationship with her sister which is a bonus.
If you are comfortable putting your DNA in the public domain? Having said that, I am not, but my mother didn't consider the implications when she chose to do so.
Hey OP,
I came across this on the BBC site recently. Hope it helps in some way.
Good luck!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-53447901
Mrs DB is into tracing her family - she was adopted at 6 days old and didn't really find out until her 40s the circumstances. She's managed to track down her dad, who now lives in Australia and he didn't even know he had a daughter. Her birth mother refuses to acknowledge her existence. She's traced her family trees using Ancestry, supported by census and document searches. She's also done a DNA test and periodically gets contacted by 'relatives'. It gets a bit weird for those on her mother's side because the whole thing was hushed-up. If you were adopted, one of the obstacles to overcome is that in the 60s and 70s adoptions are often 'closed' and you have to go through your local social services to have access to your file - counselling etc. Eventually, Mrs DB got access to her file, tracked her dad down in Australia and had to go via an intermediary in Australia to write to him on her behalf to make the initial introduction. Mrs DB found the whole process quite cathartic.
its a big shame if your mother could help but wont,in a way I'm in the same boat, however if you were born in a hospital, they may have records
Possibly the local newspaper had something.
If there was an adoption society or the local authority orsuchlike involved in legal technicalities they may know something
I know things that werent on my birth certificate,and though nobody ever admitted it,there are 'coincidences' that cant be explained by the stories I was given
A lot of white British and Americans have Irish or Scots ancestry and there tend to be surprising numbers of records that were lost in a fire.
If an ancestor emigrated there's a good chance their name may be on the passenger manifest.
If you do go ahead with this, and get anything from your birth fathers side, have a look at https://www.familysearch.org/en/
It'll do a lot of leg work for you, connecting to existing family trees, and it's free (I found distant relatives in Australia, from a 1930s move there)
Obviously www.ancestry.co.uk is another option, a bit more limited unless you try the 30 day free trial options
My family have done it - quite interesting - my father was adopted and we matched to his fathers (other) children that had no idea they had a 1/2 sibling. More of a shock for them than it was us, as we’d always assumed he’d have genetic family that (probably) didn’t know of his existence.
Most illuminating part was finding out his biological father was a senior member of an Irish ‘freedom fighting’ movement fighting for ‘the cause’
Brother in law did it and to cut a long story short found some very unsavoury genetic facts. Really can be a can of worms if you don't have half a mind on what you might find out.