Adoption Contact Registers provide a way for adopted people and birth relatives to register their interest in making contact with one another.
Adoption Contact Registers
Statutory Adoption Contact Registers are operated by or on behalf of the Registrar General. Either party can add their own details along with the name of the person they wish to contact and if a match occurs the information is passed on to the other party.
Other registers
Until January 2013 NORCAP operated a non-statutory contact register, which held over 58,000 entries relating to adopted people and members of their birth families. Although this register is no longer open to new registrations the new holders, Adopted Service for Adults, can makes checks and verify whether an adopted person or birth relative had registered on the NORCAP Contact Register.
Listen to an expert: Contacting your family
Here you can watch Julia Feast explaining how to go about making contact with birth family members, and the role of intermediaries.