To enable you to be able to find your birth family you need to establish your own birth details.

When you are adopted your adoptive parents are given an adoption certificate and your original birth records are held at the National Statistics Office.

It is possible, especially if children are adopted at a very young age, their adoptive parents would have changed the child's name. Providing that you are over the age of 18 you can apply for a copy of this original birth certificate.

Your original birth record will detail your birth name and your birth mother's name. It may also include your birth father but this is not that common.

At 18 and over you have the right to see the records about your adoption and ask for an intermediary service to help you trace and contact your birth relatives if they are over 18 .There is a lot of information and advice on the Adoption Search and Reunion website www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk.

There are numerous ways in which you can contact birth relatives, including two national registers here in the UK. The National Statistics Office and NORCAP have such registers and you can contact them with your birth name and they check if a birth relative is registered. If they find a match then contact can be made. For a match to be made BOTH you, and your birth relative, would have had to have made contact with the register, indicating that you both want contact. Both these organisations would charge for the registration service and also offer various support services.

This is where you need to seriously consider some sort of mediation via an intermediary service. You may be exposing yourself to some difficult issues, which could include rejection. Most contact registers offer such support services.

If you fail through the contact registers you can use intermediary agencies and tracing agencies. These ideally will require the same birth information that you would have acquired and will then start searching through electoral roles, census information etc.

We also have a free bulletin section on the site. You are welcome to place a bulletin on there.

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I am trying to trace a half brother born in a Salvation Army home for unmarried mothers. I was wondering if you knew where I should look and if there is any index of such homes.

We have a number of links on our site for tracing organisations.

If you select 'Links' from our home page and then click 'Tracing families' you will see the list of contacts.

My colleague has personally used NORCAP and has also had good feedback from the 'Joan Allan Search Site'. Almost all of these will either charge or ask for a donation for their services.

When readers contact our site about tracing relatives we always ask that you consider talking to a counsellor. When tracing relatives you may uncover issues that are difficult to deal with. Your local social services or NORCAP will be able to advise you in this area.

We also have a free bulletin section on the site. You are welcome to place a bulletin on there.

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My husband and I live in the United States. I lived in England for four years (ages 13 to 17) from 1972 to 1976. Would this qualify us for adopting a British child?

In order to adopt a British child, you must presently have legal residency in the UK for at least a year.

This rule even applies to British citizens who may be working abroad for a few years before planning to return to the UK to settle permanently.

The only exception to this rule is if a person is applying to adopt a relative or has a close connection with the child - for example the adopter is a close friend of birth family or a step-parent.

It is worth noting that as the law stands, once parents have officially adopted a child in this country, there is usually nothing that can legally prevent them from moving to live in another country.

However, it is very unusual for a child to be placed overseas with adoptive parents who have gone through the adoption process in another country.

However, for a child that may already have had a lot of upheaval in their short life, and who may be in contact with birth parents or siblings, parents should seriously consider what impact this move could have on the child before arranging it.

For ex-pats, the best hope of adopting is to do so in your country of residency - but be sure to find out what restrictions there may be in acquiring British citizenship for children you adopt in a foreign country because otherwise you may find it difficult to return to the UK.

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Can I adopt a Spanish child?

I'm sure you are aware that anyone adopting a child from overseas has to go through the approval process in this country.

There are two sites that may be of use to you. These are the Overseas Adoption Helpline and the Department for Education and Skills website.

These sites will explain the different areas involved in overseas adoption, which can be very time consuming but also costly.

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I am 28 years old and getting married in July. Just recently my fiancé and I had to give notice of intention to marry, the question was asked if I wanted to put my father's name on the marriage certificate. Now in my eyes my stepfather is my father as he has brought me up since the age of five and treated me as his own; but because he has not adopted me I was not allowed to put his name on the certificate. I do not want my real father's name on the certificate nor do I want the certificate to have no father named on it.

It would not be possible for your stepfather to adopt you at this age, as the age limit is 16. It is common that people that want to use their stepfather's name change their own name by Deed Poll if they are over the age of 16, however I appreciate this doesn't help your own situation.

I'm not aware of a way around this, but it may be worth contacting your local solicitor.

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I have been living with my partner for almost five years and we got married on February 22, 2005. We have one child from this relationship but she has three from previous marriage, all of whom have had surnames changed legally. What steps do we take for me to adopt the children now we are married. Also is it true that she would have to adopt her own children?

Information about adopting a stepchild can be found on our site.

From the Adoption-net home page select 'How to adopt', then select 'Who can you adopt' followed by 'Stepchildren'.

And yes, at the moment for a step-parent to adopt a child, the step-parent and one of the child's birth parents must be married to each other and apply jointly to adopt a child. This may change in the future to allow a step-parent to adopt solely. Because couples must apply jointly, the adoption papers will show one of the child's birth parents as the adoptive parent which can also be confusing for the child.

You will find some helpful guidance here, in addition to a link taking you to the Department for Skills and Education's adoption website which is worth a visit. This site has some detailed information about the whole process.

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What rights does an unmarried couple have in adopting a child whose blood-father has died although the mother lives with the partner and he's cared for the child for over four years? Also the child wishes are to take on the stepfather's surname?

Under current law you have to be married to adopt a step-child. However, there are alternatives, such as residency orders that your partner could apply for.

It would be worth contacting your local adoption agency to discuss this in more detail.

Social services, even if you were married, would look carefully at the application and be sure that the adoption is in the child's interest and will not have an affect on its past.

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