Finding Hope!

Hi, my name is Valerie Kelly and I am 32 years young. I have been despeately looking for my biological father for a long time now. He was engaged to my mum when she fell pregnant with me and unfortunately broke up before I was born. I live in a town called Paisley, next to Glasgow in Scotland. My father was over here at the time. His name is Adrian Hayes and I believe he has a brother called Peter and sister called Elaine or Fiona although this might not be accurate; I get my singing voice from his sister! He will be approximately early to mid 50s now and this is all I know. Apparently nobody in my family can remember where abouts in Ireland he was from and I only have one old picture of him...I am his double. I have a three year old little boy, his grandson and I just want to know where I came from as I have always felt as though I have half of me missing! Any help at all would be highly appreciated.

Hi Valerie,

Family history research can be tricky sometimes especially if the paper trail of information such as Birth Certificates of parents and Grandparents are not available.

There is a previous community post on Helpful Research Tips that has some excellent information on places to check for records. Current records for the Republic of Ireland have been kept at the General Register Office of Ireland, (GRO), to this day. For Northern Ireland, people born or lived in Northern Ireland after 1921, then their records would be with General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI). 

We wish you all the best with your search and hopefully, some of our community members may also be able to help you,

Best wishes,

Hi Martin,

Thank you so much for getting in touch and for the useful links. I will have a look at these after my work. 

Really appreciated!

Kind regards