Adoption

A-Z How to Find Information > Family and Local History > Finding people

Are you an adopted person looking for birth family or are you looking for someone who was adopted?
if so, you can contact services that specially help people who have been adopted and their families

To begin, take a look at the Adoption Search Reunion web site, developed by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF)
The site is intended to be 'the first port of call for anyone thinking about searching for or making contact with birth and adopted relatives or researching an adoption that took place in the UK'
It helps you search for the location of adoption records and for registered Adoption Support Agencies in your area that can offer you help in your search. It also explains the legislation relating to your search and gives advice on how to approach reunions
The other main web site to look at is the official GOV.UK site. If you are adopted, you can apply for a copy of your original birth registration record. The official register began in 1927. See GOV.UK - Adoption Records
If you are a birth relative, you may apply to make contact with an adopted person through an approved intermediary agency. See GOV.UK - Adoption Records. To find approved agencies, see Finding an agency to help you, on the Adoption Search Reunion site
If you are adopted, or if you are a birth parent or other relative of someone who was adopted, you can ask for your name and address to be added to the official Adoption Contact Register. If a connection is found, the adopted person will be sent the details of the relatives and the relatives will be informed that a connection has been found. See GOV.UK - Adoption Records
Other helpful organisations are listed on the pages of BAAF's main web site.
The book 'Where to find adoption records: a guide for counsellors, adopted people and birth parents, 3rd edition', edited by Georgina Stafford and published by BAAF, 2001, is a directory of adoption agencies with details of the years for which they have records, but such information is now searchable a BAAF's Adoption Search Reunion web site

Page last updated: 28th May 2020