Ancestry DNA testing to discover who my grandfather's parents

[MamMamMam]

I've always been interested in my family tree but I've never did anything about it because I know I'll hit a brick wall with my mother's father.

He was taken into a family home from around the age of 6 to help on the farm during the summer holidays from a children's home in Dublin. My grandfather loved it there and the family kept him.

My grandmother, aunts and uncles always believed my grandfather was the son of one of the families daughter's and my grandfather more or less confirmed this on his death bed.
My grandfather had no formal education although he did well in life. There are no births or baptismal certificates for him. Basically all records disappeared in a fire in Dublin in 1922. We aren't even sure of his surname.

My mother, aunts and uncles remain close to my grandfather's "adoptive " family but when asked about my grandfather the clam up and deny any knowledge.

We have no idea who my great grandfather was but I'd be curious to know.

Would ancestry dna testing be able to shine any light on this kind of situation?

I know I could be opening pandoras box but I wouldn't have to share my findings

Oh yes definitely get it done, then if any of your relatives, from his side, have had theirs done it will show up as a match - direct relative, 2nd cousins etc.
They may even have family trees/ family gossip to shine more light on the mystery.

Your own profile won't be much use on its own. It will only work ig you can get profiles from possible relatives to compare them with, and you may have to pay for expert analysis.
But good luck with your search!

Worth a try though you may need help from experienced genaeologist to trace which connections are from your grandfathers blood relatives, given that you don't have any surnames to work from. I've done it and have matches up to 6th cousins so you should be successful with a bit of work and probably a lot of patience, as you will be relying on matched people to communicate with you.

A friend of mine did this. Itbwas a similar sort of situation to the one you are describing. My friend managed to find out for her grandmother where she came from, was able to meet some cousins and find out who her birth father was before she died last year. It was so touching. They sent photos of some other family members across to my friend and the resemblance to her Grandma was amazing.

It took a lot of work but I think she got lucky in that the other side of the family had done the DNA thing too so they could be matched.

It will only help if someone from the side of the family you're looking for has had their DNA analysed. The closest you're going to get is perhaps your grandfather's sibling or more likely their child or grandchild, with whom you'll share 1/8, 1/16 or 1/32 of your DNA. Most people native to an area, particularly rural communities, are related to third (1/32 share) or fourth (1/64 share) cousin degree, so it wouldn't say much.

So do it if you have a general interest in the result - it is pretty cool, and has some interesting implications for health - but go into it with very low expectations as far as family connections are concerned.