Tracing Services

If you were adopted or fostered is may be possible to trace your birth family.

Adoption Information and Tracing Services

Support Groups/Other Useful Contacts

Who can trace?
If you were adopted, if you are a birth parent, if you are adoptive parent or if you were raised in long term foster care you can trace birth relatives. Each individual person has their own unique reason for seeking background information and considering tracing. In the past adoption was seen as a final break between parent and child but now it is recognised as part an evolving life long process for those concerned. There has been a dramatic increase in people seeking information or looking to trace their birth relatives.

Initiating Enquiry
Information and tracing enquiries are normally dealt with by the organisation that arranged the original adoption placement. If the original placement agency has closed, the HSE or the agency that now holds the placement records, will deal with the enquiry. If you know which agency was involved in the adoption, you can contact them directly.

Click here for a list of adoption information and tracing services

Alternative Steps for Enquiry
If you do not wish to pursue your enquiry through the agency that organised the adoption, you can contact your local health office or the Adoption Board’s Information and Tracing Unit.
Adoption Information and Tracing Unit:
Tel 01-230 9328, 01-2309344, 01-2309325 and 01-2309332.
www.adoptionboard.ie

Some registered adoptions (particularly before the 1970s) were organised privately between the natural mother and the adoptive parents, or by individual nursing homes, doctors, priests and others, without an adoption agency having been involved. In these cases, the Adoption Board provides a service directly to the enquirer.

If you were not legally Adopted.
If you were fostered or ‘boarded out’ but never legally adopted you may contact the Adoption Board or your local health office for advice on how to proceed. Records of children fostered or ‘boarded out’ are generally held by the HSE in the area where a child was placed. In addition, many children were ‘boarded out’ from private institutions. Prior to the introduction of legal adoption in Ireland in 1952, some children were ‘informally adopted’. Some adoption agencies hold records in relation to these ‘informal’ adoptions.

After the introduction of legal adoption in Ireland in 1952, some children’s births were registered directly into the name of the ‘adoptive’ parents. This practice had the effect of removing all reference to the natural parents from the official record and also meant the Adoption Board had no record of the case, as there had been no legal adoption. Some adoption agencies have records in relation to these.

Outcomes of Tracing
Tracing enquiries can have a number of possible outcomes. One outcome can be that the natural parent or adopted person being traced is found and is willing to have some form of contact. Contact can begin with information, letters, or photos being shared through a third party. Contact can then proceed at a level and a pace that both of you are happy with.

It is also important to prepare carefully for a meeting and to consult with the intermediary facilitating the meeting. After contact has been made, there may still be issues that you may wish to consider. An adopted person may feel uncomfortable telling their adoptive parents about the contact. The natural parents may have married after the adoption. A natural mother’s husband and family may not know of the adopted person’s existence. A natural mother may have difficulty discussing the circumstances of the birth or her relationship with the natural father. A person may have difficulty in reconciling the real person with the image of the person they have built up over the years of separation. These are all issues that need to be approached with a great deal of sensitivity by all parties involved in the process.

Unfortunately, in some cases it may not be possible to locate the person you are seeking. This may be because the information on that person may be inaccurate or out of date. The person may have emigrated. Approaching other family members who may have been unaware of the adopted persons’ birth may also be difficult.

In other cases, the natural mother or adopted person, when contacted, may be unable or unwilling to accept contact. Again, there can be a variety of reasons for this decision. In the case of a natural mother, she may never have told anyone else about the pregnancy and birth and may fear the reaction or her husband, partner or family. She may also not be in a position to receive letters, accept telephone calls, or travel to a meeting without their knowledge. Some natural mothers found the experience of pregnancy and adoption so traumatic that they blocked it out of their minds for many years and find it too painful to deal with at a later stage. Some adopted people may have no wish to learn about their natural family and may resent any enquiry from a natural parent or family member.

There will also be cases where a natural parent or perhaps an adopted person will have died in the intervening years since the adoption. In such cases, it may be possible to meet with other family members, obtain photographs of the deceased, or visit their grave. The Agency or HSE will, if possible, approach the family to see if such contact is possible. Again, the Adoption Board, Adoption Agencies, HSE and Support Groups can be helpful in such circumstances.

All parties can be assured that their privacy will be respected. Phone calls and letters can be exchanged via third parties and meetings can be arranged on neutral ground.

Support Groups/Other Useful Contacts

Adoption Ireland
14 Exchequer Street, Dublin 2
Tel: 01 - 6790011

Email: chairperson@adoptionireland.com
campaigns@adoptionireland.com

Natural Parents Network of Ireland
PO Box 6714, Dublin 4
Advice Line: Tel: 1890 200046 (2 – 4 pm Sundays only)
Email:secretary@adoptionloss.ie

Adoptive Parents Association of Ireland
Roundwood, Bray, Co Wicklow Tel: 0404 - 45184
Email: apai@eircom.net

Helen Scott, 40 Fairyhouse Lodge, Ratoath, Co. Meath.
Tel: 01-8256961
Email: scotthelen@eircom.net

Last updated on: 06 / 10 / 2009

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