So, I filled out the paperwork to get on the state adoption registry.

[EllieKay56]

My husband was adopted at birth 64 years ago. We always knew his birth mom's name from the court dockets when the adoption was finalized. He never had any interest in finding her and his dad was listed as unknown. A few years ago a friend of mine found his adopted family and it was good. So my DH sent for his birth certificate since Illinois opened the records. His came with all information redacted which the birth parent can do. So we knew she was still alive. This got him a little angry especially because he knew her name.
He did his DNA on Ancestry and found a few cousins. Since we knew her name I joined a few search sites and Newspapers.com. Put in her name and was able to find her marriages and other children. Steve did write to her and her nothing. He then contacted his 3 half siblings. Two of them responded and never knew this happened. They talked to their mom and she said she doesn't want to revisit the past. He has met his siblings and they are great.
A few months ago on Ancestry a close relative on his dad's side showed up. I contacted them because I was positive it was his paternal aunt. Jackpot! She always suspected that Gloria was pregnant but she said in the 1950s you didn't ask questions. His bio dad died about 18 years ago. He has 3 half siblings. He looks just like his dad. It is scary to see the resemblance. Two weeks ago we met his aunt, half-sister and assorted family. They have also been great. They brought pictures and shared stories. His half-sister cried when seeing him since he looks like her dad. Steve talks to his aunt once a week. He is Facebook friends with the rest.
For us it has been a positive experience. Steve is fine with his mom not wanting to meet.

[anjcohen]

Once you get your DNA back from Ancestry, see https://www.city-data.com/forum/genea...l#post52497844. Scroll down to where it says Now to the DNA; I tell you how to upload to My Heritage for free family matching. For a fee (I believe $30) you can get access to surnames and trees of matches, matches by country which can be very useful if he's not in the US. FTDNA gives free family matching, for $19 you can get ethnicity, ancient ethnicity and chromosome browser. Note that they allow the FBI to also upload crime scene DNA. FTDNA is useful for you in case your son tries to do a Y-DNA to search the father line or an mtDNA test which will tell him your line if there is a match. There is also GEDmatch Genesis which supports uploads from 23 and me and smaller sites. If you have $100 I do suggest also testing at 23 and me where a lot of adoptees test to find their health information.



Adoption - Reunion Tips (non DNA)[/quote]

[b]Adoptee her: I found my paternal side a few years ago at age 59 through Ancestry.....! Had a match to a "1st cousin" and took it from there.......good luck.

[Sassybluesy]

Thanks Anjcohen. :-)