Trying to find half sibling with limited information

[Mctierk]

Hi I am trying to find a half sister. I have very limited information and don’t know where else to go for the information I need. I know the mums name and roughly where she lived when having the baby and roughly what year this would have been. I haven’t got any family members that can help me further either. It seems like a needle in haystack but would like to try find my half sister please if someone out there can help me

[trystan]

Hello - and welcome to RootsChat.

Unfortunately we do not allow the details of living people to be posted publically on RootsChat, but hopefully somebody can help you with resources that may be able to steer you in the right direction without using details of living people.

You can exchange living people details using Personal Messaging on here too.

I hope you find your half sister. All the very best,

Trystan
RootsChat Co-Founder

[chempat]

If the Mother's name was e.g. Julie Abcdef, and was not married, you are looking for a female birth for Abcdef/Abcdef in the correct area and time period.

If she has a common surname e.g Smith, it is rather difficult.  If an unusual surname you should be OK.

Have you identified any such births on either GRO or freebmd, as you have not specified the approximate year?

[aghadowey]

Welcome to Rootschat 

You can't post personal details but if you give us an idea of which country and year your half sister was born we might be able to suggest where you might be able to look.

[Mctierk]

Wow I wasn’t even expecting a response so thank you very much. At the time the mother wasn’t married but unsure if she has later on went on to be married. She was based in Glasgow at the time so I’m assuming she was born in Glasgow. The mum did come down to Corby when her daughter was really young but didn’t stay long and moved back up to Scotland again. She was born late 70s for what I gathered so like between 1976-1980 maybe for what I have tried to work out thank you very much for everyone’s help

[carol8353]

For births in Scotland you will need to use the Scottish Website.... https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

[MonicaL]

There are a few issues with doing research at present for Scottish certs and registrations...

Scotlands People as Carol has mentioned is where you need to check details. Free to register and run searches. You only pay to view images online, or when ordering a certificate. At the moment you cannot order any certificates as their offices remain closed for this type of business due to Covid. There is a 100 yr cut off to view birth certs online (75 yrs for marriages and 50 yrs for deaths) to protect people's privacy etc.

Unlike English and Welsh records, you can't search for births online using mother's maiden name. On the index therefore you will only be able to see a surname with no further details. You can't take from that the surname is that of a child with married parents or the mother's maiden name. Sometimes if father agrees to have his name included in a child's birth registration, there will be two entries on the register index, one for the father's surname and one for the mother's surname.

If you were able to search in Scotland in person when the major genealogy centres open, you can do a search using mother's maiden name from c. 1929 which would fit with your years. If this search is being done in person, you can also view the image online at their terminals to check the details for the registration...but for now, these remain closed.

Monica

[guest189040]

Welcome and you have quite a task ahead of you.

Even if and when you can access the Birth Records they are not going to necessarily provide the information you seek as to the current whereabouts of your half sibling.

Depending upon who took custody of the child then what paperwork that exists becomes variable.

If the child was formally adopted then a specialist intermediary would be required for them to access records and for them to find what happened to the child.  If they can find them and that they were legally adopted then that still is not the final outcome for the person as they will also need to find out if they are aware that they were adopted.

There are many people out there who only found they were adopted after the death of their adoptive parents when they were house clearing and found the paperwork.

It is not an easy task and whilst it is a long shot you may like to also have a DNA test which can be specific to both parents or specific to either your Father or Mother.

If the child was your Father’s via a woman who was not your Mum then a yDNA would only give you DNA matches from his side of your family.  Conversely an MTDNA would be just your Mothers side.

Another long shot would be to contact the TV programme Long Lost Family to see if they would be interested in including your search in one of their programmes.

[Mctierk]

Thank you all for your replies I am just catching up this morning I see I have a difficult task ahead of me that’s why I have tried to seek help online as can’t seem to find help anywhere else your advise has all been brilliant I am willing to try anything to find her