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Can I trace a sibling without my parents' knowledge?

  • 30-05-2008 8:19pm
    #1
    findingyou
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭


    I think my situation is a little unusual. I want to trace my half-sibling, now deceased, but I don't want my parents to know about it. I'm looking at the information on adoptionireland.com, but I want to know whether, if I try to contact the adoption agency, they are obliged to inform the biological mother. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Comments

  • #2
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,285 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    You can trace a sibling without your parents knowledge. Follow the directions for a birthparent on the AdoptionIreland website- its just approaching this from a slightly different direction.

    With respect of the adoption agency- they have no obligation to give any information whatsoever to you. You are neither the parent of the child, nor the child itself, so all the information pertains to people who are considered third party to you (though related of course). Its difficult enough for birthparents or adopted people to access information from agencies- unfortunately from your perspective, its most probably a total non-runner.

    Once you have the name of your birthmother (or your sibling's birthmother) along with her date of birth etc- its very simple to look up the original birthcert for your sibling in Births/Marriages/Deaths- which will give you their original name along with their date of birth (thats about it though). From here you will be in a position to seek to examine the Register of Adopted People (its normally behind the counter and has to be specially requested). You will then have to go through all 3 books, and pick out males/females with the same DOB as that reported on your sibling's original birthcert. Its entirely possible that you may have several. These will give you a new name for your sibling (or several possibilities) along with sundry details including the then address of the adoptive parents. From there on- its a case of checking out all your information piece by piece- until you get a definitive match. Up-to-date address info can normally be found in electoral registers, historic registers are normally stored on microfiche at County Libraries.

    Do let us know how it goes, and if you need any tips or pointers feel free to ask.......

    Shane


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