Adopted parent

[Thenightwemet16]

My mum was adopted in the early 50s and I don't know much about her birth parents, only that her mother died young, and nothing about her father (the rumour is that my mum was the result of an affair). I also know that she found a half-uncle and did meet him once.

I've recently started to think quite a bit about her (well, mine too!) birth family and am considering doing an ancestry or similar test to see what it might bring up. I am generally quite intrigued by family history etc.

DM died a few years ago so unable to ask her anything.

Has anyone been in a similar position and managed to find out anything using an ancestry test?

No but I did 23 and me recently and it was super interesting and connected me with family members that I know and some that I don't x

I'd be wary about doing an ancestry test. You might "match" with birth relatives who don't know about the adoption. There may be a chance that your birth grandparents didn't want other relatives knowing etc. Have you tried going through the "usual" channels first? Contact social services or signing up to the adoption register (not sure if the latter is an option for an adoptees child but worth looking at). Consider that any contact or matched (especially via ancestry) might cause upset for others.

I have briefly looked into this, but it's so long ago (and also that it's not my birth parents) that the process is incredibly longwinded and might not even be possible.

Tbh I think anyone partaking in these tests (and then further more agreeing to be contacted) should be open to the possibility of things like this happening.

And any relatives of my DM's parents' generation will be dead, unlikely that many of my DM's generation will still be alive so there won't be the chance of finding very close relatives.

Also, I'm not saying that I would definitely contact anyone if anything came up, just be interested to know if there was.