Who Do I Think I Am?

Since I decided earlier this year to find out more about my birth family I have made a little progress:

• Rang Isle of Man Adoption Service - found the number on-line and spoke to a social worker who gave me the number of the Birmingham branch of the National Children's Home (NCH) and a name to contact, to try and get my adoption records.
• He said I would need proof of ID and my adoption certificate in order to access my records.
  
• Rang NCH Birmingham - left message for the woman I needed to speak to, asking for information.
• Asked mum and dad for adoption certificate.
• Mum and dad gave me more correspondence they received and notes they made at the time of my adoption - they have a record of my birth name.
• General Register Office - they manage the Adoption Contact Register which exists to put adopted people and their birth relatives in touch with each other if that is what they both wish. Part 1 of the Contact Register is for adopted adults to record their wishes for contact or no contact with birth relatives. Part 2 of the Contact Register is for birth relatives to record their wishes for contact or no contact with the adopted person.
• Sent application to go on part 1 of Adoption Contact Register - recording wish for contact.
  
• Rang General Register Office - they maintain a record of adoptions made on the authority of courts in England and Wales in the Adopted Children Register. At 18, an adopted person can apply for a certificate of their original birth registration, via the Access to Birth Records service at the General Register Office. The General Register Office cannot help with accessing IOM birth records. Gave me a number to try in IOM.
• Rang IOM General Registry - said they might not have records as would have been handled by NCH but are sending an application form.
  
• Mum and dad found small birth certificate - looking for adoption certificate.
• NCH Birmingham - the woman rang and is sending me a form to fill in. They are very busy and warned that it might be a while before anyone got back to me.
• Filled in and posted NCH Access to Personal Records leaflet I'd picked up.
• Filled in and posted NCH Access to Birth Records for Adoptees leaflet I'd picked up.
• Received application form for Access to Birth Records form from IOM General Registry - may be the same as NCH form which I've already sent so I'll wait and see results of that one first.
• Registered on Ancestry.co.uk - looked for any people with my birth surname from IOM - no matches.
• Received letter from NCH Birmingham - they do have records of my adoption, due to their operating a waiting list I will be contacted in 4 - 6 weeks for an appointment.
  
• Received a letter from the Adoption Contact Register to inform me that no relatives were registered on part 2. This means no-one has registered wishing contact with me, but also that no-one has registered wishing no contact with me.
• Appointment come through for NCH Birmingham.
• Saw social worker at NCH Birmingham - discussed the implications of tracing birth family, possible outcomes, what I was hoping for, what I was expecting, best and worse case scenarios. She asked if I wanted to look at my adoption record. Ade and I read it all. From before my birth up to my transfer to Frodsham and my adoption. She asked if I wanted copies of all the information in the file. Obviously I said "Yes please!"

So here it is - my adoption file!

It contains my little period of previously unknown personal history. The clues with which to trace my birth relatives and my own ancestry might well be inside.

Will the clues be there? Will they enable me to find my roots and follow them into my past? Will I find what I'm looking for? What is it I am looking for??

It remains to be seen...