Find Ancestors

Heh, Cynthia - I do 'em too. (Who found PollyPoppet's dad's sister, now? ;) ) And I do agree that some situations raise concerns.

And I'm well known for having all kinds of qualms about personal info that sometimes gets posted here w/o the knowledge of the person in question!

I tend to think that the birth name of a person who has been adopted would be known only to the person themself and people very close to them -- that is, only to the person themself *if they already knew they were adopted*, and to other people who already knew the person was adopted.

Also, as far as third parties (like birth parents or adoptive parents), the info would not disclose anything about them.

So this situation strikes me as low-risk. ;)

I will rest easy in my bed Janey :)) Cx.

So, JaneyCanuck/Cynthia/ContraryMary,
Is the general concensus then that I should, or should not, put his birth name in title of thread?!
I have been hesitant to do that so far, not wanting to cause anyone anything unwanted, i.e: if he or somebody (like his adoptive parents, for instance) were to become aware of his birth name being on here and feeling as though their privacy had been compromised.......? Although I have seen other threads here and on sites similar to this where people (both adoptees and birth families) put the birth name, DOB, place of birth, parents' names etc. and nobody seems to suggest anything wrong with it....? It's not against the law or anything is it?!!

As you've asked.......Yes!! I would definitely recommend that you put the birth name in the title.

If the person doesn't know that they were adopted, then they are not going to recognise the name anyway.

If, however they do know then they will have a chance of finding this thread by *googling* their birth name and should they wish to make contact, will do so. If they don't want to make contact then they won't! Their choice!

Their *privacy* (IMO) isn't being compromised. It would be if you were to put their adoptive name.....but you're not going to do that.

No, it's not against the law, if it were, sites like this would have been prosecuted out of existence long ago.

Mary

My own feeling is that the name would do no harm.

People do name the living people they're looking for all the time. When it concerns me is when it moves on (and it often does) to discussions of the circumstances of a person's birth and/or family -- the parents' names and details of their relationship (unmarried, married to someone else, bigamously married, having a mental illness -- yup, we see 'em all), e.g.

Just a name, date and place -- particularly where no one but someone close and already in the know would recognize the info (i.e. it's not like an employer googling a prospective employee's name and coming up with all sorts of sensitive info about the person's family) -- strikes me as benign. ;)