Top tip - using the Genes Reunited community

Welcome to the Genes Reunited community boards!

  • The Genes Reunited community is made up of millions of people with similar interests. Discover your family history and make life long friends along the way.
  • You will find a close knit but welcoming group of keen genealogists all prepared to offer advice and help to new members.
  • And it's not all serious business. The boards are often a place to relax and be entertained by all kinds of subjects.
  • The Genes community will go out of their way to help you, so don’t be shy about asking for help.

Getting in touch with living relatives

For people who are adopted, both the family trees of their birth parents and of their adoptive family are of interest, as both sets of people will have had an impact on the person you are. But many people who were adopted and fostered have a burning desire to uncover their birth family and understand their origins. Obviously tracing a birth parent can be a difficult search, both emotionally and practically. People wishing to find the new identity of an adopted relative can hire an intermediary agency through Adoption Records.

If you were adopted and want to know who your original parents were, contact the adoption authority of your local Social Services. They will arrange for appropriate counselling and you will be shown your original birth certificate, and your adoption papers, which should explain why you were adopted, and perhaps give some helpful details to help you trace your natural parents. Also this other website can help to bring families looking for each other together - Pre-Adoption, Post-Adoption Permanency Advice and Counselling.