Find Living Relatives

Hi

I want to try and find my half brother. I know he was adopted in 1959 (born 1958)

I have his birth cert, so know his birth name, but am not sure of what his name would be now.

I do know that he worked at Petticoat Lane Market in London and is probably still living in the London area.

What's my best way of trying to trace him?

Thanks

Do you have him & his parents on your tree? If not, add their names and details now. Are they on anyone else's? Send the tree owner a message.

Add his name to the adoption contact register and hope he is looking for birth family.
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records/the-adoption-contact-register

Which parent do you share? If you have a different mother, could a subsequent partner have adopted him? Could he have been adopted by another family member?

Put his birth name in the title - use the Edit button. That way this thread might be picked up in an internet search.

Find his birth reg on FreeBMD & add a post'em. Say something like birth half sister would welcome contact & leave a generic contact email address such as @hotmail or @gmail.

As you believe he worked in Petticoat Lane, someone must have had contact with him. What other clues do they have?

I have had him a tree on here for quite a few years now and ancestry, but no luck.

We share the same birth mother. I do believe he was adopted by someone known to the family, as my grandmother used to receive letters and pictures.

Sadly there is no one in that part of the family who I can ask about him and it was always a sensitive subject with my mum.

But now I really want to find him. Him being born in 1958 means he isn't getting younger. I don't want it to be too late.

I guess I should contact an Intermediary Service if I have no luck with the adoption register.

Thanks

The intermediary service is worth a try as they are more likely to be able to access his files than you.

If you've been reading the Living Relatives boards, you'll realise that adoptees trying to find birth family have a tendency to fall into one of two main catagorise - there are other scenario's!

- those who have known they were adopted and have the blessing of their adoptive parents to find 'blood relatives'
- those who may be knew, but didn't want to upset their adoptive parents. They're often the ones who waited until the adoptive parents are deceased.

Its also possible that he doesn't know he as adopted. If he applied for a passport before more stingent rules were brought in, he wouldn't have needed to provide a full birth certiificate; a 'short' version which only his name, dob and reg details.