The fun of adoption...

[Scully]

I am adopted and my family is MY family. I have know no other and I prefeer to keep it that way. My family ties are mine. Now saying that, I was adopted from CA many years ago and there is no listing of a father on the paperwork. I can't start a search if I don't have starting point.
Your situation is different and special so be glad you CAN search and get answers. Best of luck with your search.

[gilmore]

I am adopted and my family is MY family. I have know no other and I prefeer to keep it that way. My family ties are mine. Now saying that, I was adopted from CA many years ago and there is no listing of a father on the paperwork. I can't start a search if I don't have starting point.
...

That is no longer the case, necessarily.

If you are a man, you can test your Y chromosome DNA through one of the genetic genealogy testing firms, and are quite likely to be able to discover at least your biological father's surname, if not closer paternal male relatives.

Family Tree DNA is the leading company, has the largest database and hence is more likley to be helpful than the other companies. Their site is www.familytreedna.com . You might take a look at their FAQ, if you are interested. I believe they have a project for adoptees.

Y DNA testing is something of a crap shoot. You may find an exact match, you may find distant matches, you may find no matches at all, or it might be years before some one with Y DNA close to yours tests. I suspect it will be a more helpful adjunct to genealogical research in years to come as more men test than it is now.

[cessna152towser]

Well my maternal grandmother was adopted and never knew her natural parents. It is only in recent years when doing ancestry research that I found her blood ancestry, from which I found that I have Wallace, MacNair and MacLeod blood lineage. I also found a history of death by tuberculosis through the Wallace line, which was very interesting as my own mother died from TB as recently as 1992 which puzzled the doctors as it is a rare disease nowadays. I also found that gran's mother died from TB when she was a few months old, she was given for adoption by her father who re-married. She had always been thought to be an only child but I discovered she had two sisters who died in infancy from TB and a brother who died from TB before he was 30, but lived just long enough to marry and to father a son who would have been a full cousin to my mother. The son went on to become a coal miner and he married and had family with whom I have recently made contact for the first time. I also made contact with relatives of the family who adopted my grandmother who gave me some copies of magnificent old family photos.

[gilmore]

Well my maternal grandmother was adopted and never knew her natural parents. It is only in recent years when doing ancestry research that I found her blood ancestry, from which I found that I have Wallace, MacNair and MacLeod blood lineage. I also found a history of death by tuberculosis through the Wallace line, which was very interesting as my own mother died from TB as recently as 1992 which puzzled the doctors as it is a rare disease nowadays. I also found that gran's mother died from TB when she was a few months old, she was given for adoption by her father who re-married. She had always been thought to be an only child but I discovered she had two sisters who died in infancy from TB and a brother who died from TB before he was 30, but lived just long enough to marry and to father a son who would have been a full cousin to my mother. The son went on to become a coal miner and he married and had family with whom I have recently made contact for the first time. I also made contact with relatives of the family who adopted my grandmother who gave me some copies of magnificent old family photos.

What an interesting story.

[Bugbear]

Genetics are only potentials. One's culture, up bringing, and many other things including emotions are very important to who you are.

[sathor]

It brings up another useful point, clans were blood and by joining by marriage, if the paper trail shows it going back, even with the NPE in play, that child was still part of the clan, even if not by blood, and carries on downward.

[O'Callaghan]

It brings up another useful point, clans were blood and by joining by marriage, if the paper trail shows it going back, even with the NPE in play, that child was still part of the clan, even if not by blood, and carries on downward.

Not only that, but other people who were not blood often became part of a clan. In Scotland this gave us many of the septs, i.e. other names that are considered part of a clan, and in Ireland I have been told that they took the clan name as their new surname instead.

Not that any of this is new information for most people here, but I think a lot of the interest in genealogy here stems from looking for clans in the family tree. I think you can claim to be part of a clan either through adoption or through blood, so perhaps those who are adopted have twice the opportunities to claim a clan.

It also means that if you have the name but not the right DNA you may belong to an entire family that was adopted by the clan, rather than having an ancestor who was adopted by step parents or whose father was misattributed.

[Bugbear]

Post deleted by author because it didn't add anything to the discussion.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I am curious what the rest of you think of adoption, does it mean as much as blood when doing ancestor research?

Heraldically speaking, an adopted child has the same rights as a lawfully born child, but ahead of any naturally born child, unless the armiger settles his heraldic estate in some other way that would fall within the the terms of the original grant.

ZB: Mr. Hoot moves in with Ms. Watt, sows some wild oats as a college boy, and sires a "natural" child, in this instance a boy named "Larry", who takes his father's last name. Later Mr. Hoot marries a Ms. Primm and they adopt a boy and name him "Curly". A year later, after taking some fertility drugs, they have triplets (Manny, Moe, and Jack). Sadly Mr. Hoot dies and his heraldic estate is apportioned between his heirs. Unless otherwise provided for in his will, the Triplets will come first (Manny, Moe, and Jack in the order of their delivery) followed by the adopted son (Curly, with a brisure indicating adoption) and finally Larry (the "natural son" of Mr. Hoot) carrying the cadency mark of the fourth son.

Now I can hear some of you amateur armorists shouting out loud at your computer screens-- calm down before your wife calls the looney bin and asks them to send round two men with one of those jackets with the eight foot long arms and half a dozen buckles in the back. It doesn't matter what A.C.Fox-Davis wrote in 1904. Things have changed. Here is the reasoning behind the above mentioned disposition of ensigns armorial:

When Ms. Primm married Mr. Hoot she entered into a social contract with him whereby she had certain legal rights as did any children of their lawful union. That contract takes precedence over any informal agreement which may have existed between Mr. Hoot and his collegiate one-night stand with Ms. Watt. The adoption of the older boy, post-marriage, entitles him to a portion of his adopted father's heraldic estate, but not to the pretense of being a blood descendant. So, he gets the arms of his adoptive father, suitably differenced, to denote his status in the family. The natural son takes his place behind his half brothers because there was no "contract" between his father (Mr. Hoot) and his Mother (Ms. Watt) and therefore there was no expectation that he would succeed to the undifferenced arms of his father.

Note that the "natural child" inherits without any mark of "bastardry". This is because "bastardry" no longer exists in EU law in the sense that it could be applied to the descent of arms.

In my view, and only in my view, adoption is something akin to marriage. You have a biological family, but you also have a second, legal and loving family. While in the strictest sense you do not descend from that adoptive family, you can share in their ethos, culture, and familial traditions. That means, at least to me, that you also share in that "heritage".

[Bugbear]

** Post removed by author because it was off topic. **