My grampa was adopted and I'm curious what my real last name is??? how can i find out?

Question

I know my uncle tried looking this up about 10 years ago and was old fashion about it.... So with are new technology is there anyway i can look this up or anything??

Answer 1

For starters, the law depends on where you live.. both country and state laws will be different.

Having said that.. SOMETIMES what we think of as an adoption, may not have been formally legalized. Meaning, there won't always be a record of an adoption.  It can depend on WHEN he went to live with the other family, since it is not impossible that he lived with the birth parents for a time.  You need to look for his birth certificate, and possibly his social security file, for POSSIBLE information.  

Another possible route is that there was an adoption.. but SOMETIMES there are family members who know who the real parents were. This happens a lot, if the adoption was arranged, when the adopting family knew of the birth parent through private means.  It is a challenge.. and means locating as many older living relatives as you can, and asking if ANYONE knows (or was told) something. It might be something like "the family next door had 7 kids already and could not afford the new baby".  It won't be a name.. but it gives you the chance to look for records of who lived in the neighborhood.

Was grandpa ever in an orphanage? SOME orphanages keep the records, and are now making them available. My mother was not adopted, but she and her siblings were placed in an orphanage.. I recently found that the church/ orphanage has a website.  

Looking it up online is really your last option, until you do what you can to find any possible details.  There is no guarantee.. but you have to try. If you can get a clue, or name, then you go from there to historical records. In the US, at least, persons born before 1930 will be in the census, and it is open for research.

Start with working on charts for your known family groups.. who WERE Grandpa's siblings, his (adoptive) parents, their siblings (and possible children).  

All of this, of course, normally applies to the US.

Answer 2

The name you have IS your REAL last name!

Answer 3

In England as an adopted person you have rights. Your Citizen's Advice Bureau will help you.

Answer 4

You most likely will not find out what your granddad's birth parents names were.  BUT, since you are a male and hopefully your parent that is the child of this adopted granddad is your father, for about $149 you can do a DNA test that will at least tell you where your ancestors came from.

If you tell us what his name, birth date, birth place and his adoptive parents were we might be able to give you a place to start looking for the documentation.  Go back as far as you can.  Include his siblings.