General Chat

thanks for all the replies

If its only a 'linking' rather than 'go and find' service, surely it wouldn't do any harm?
Although there's only a remote chance that fathers descendants would be also registered, they might well be delighted to have contact.

No harm in registering, I should think.

If the child knows, she will search if she's interested and curious.

If you don't hear anything then so be it.

Tricky situation. They may know but may not "want to know", if you see what I mean.

it's quite probably a touchy subject given when my grandmother was born and the social attitudes at the time.

I would register, if the other parties aren't interested they won't know. I think you're right that his child probably won't know, even if his wife did.

probably wasn't very well phrased on my part. My grandmother died in 1994, and when the law was changed about a year or so ago it then meant that other relatives ( like myself as a grandchild ) could then be allowed to access the adoption file. From what I've found out so far, the birth dad married and had a son. As I can register my details with birth link in Scotland if I wanted to, I'm still in 2 minds to do this - partly because the birth dad may not have told his wife or child he had a daughter ( bearing in mind that in the 1930's it wasn't exactly the done thing to have a child out of wedlock ). Was curious if anyone had been in this situation and how things went

I'd assumed, from how the request was phrased, that the person was still living and if they are only they can have access, surely?

comes under section 98 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 ( England and Wales ) that birth relatives of the adopted person can access the file. It came into effect 30th December 2005

managed to access my grandmothers file just over a year ago, and she has at least one half sibling - as I'm still in 2 minds whether or nor not to register my details with birth link, which is why I was asking if anyone else had been through a similar experience

File access wont be granted to anyone other than the adopted person themselves if they are living
...but there are clauses if that person is deceased and you are a child of that adopted person.
An extened relative has no rights.

you need to message Kay she will put you right :-D

Only the adopted person is allowed to see their file.

out of curiosity, has anyone accessed the adoption files of a relative who had been adopted, and after further research you found out the relatives birth parents had children after the person had been adopted. Have you considered registering your details with an adoption agency in the hope they made contact - if so how did things go