Day 1 (X posted from somewhere else, this was yesterday)

So, its the first day really and I decided (in my *infinite* wisdom) to do what every normal person does and Google "Dave Roberts" with various suffixes to see what I could findDo you KNOW how many of them there is??? Damn him, why could he not have an unusual name like me? You google me and i come straight up with a concert I did for school many moons ago (that and a lot of Japanese stuff, apparently I'm also a form of karate).I spoke to my mum yesterday and she advised me that the Salvation Army do a tracing service, so I've had a look into that and found out that as my parents were not married at the time of my birth, they don't provide the service.

I quote

"Who is not included in the tracing programme?

We do not normally become involved in searches where adoption has taken place, nor with enquiries to trace a mother or father where there was no marriage between parents. We cannot look for children under 18 years of age, or other 'vulnerable' missing people where a physical search or police involvement would probably be more appropriate. We cannot carry out family history enquiries, or look for 'possible' relatives. For further information see our Dos and Don'ts page. "

"A birth parent on behalf of adopted or non-marital children

Whilst the Department has every sympathy with an adopted or illegitimate person seeking the whereabouts of his or her natural parent, there is no way of knowing that parent's present domestic circumstances, and the risk of disrupting a happy family unit is too great. In addition, the basic information required is often not available in such cases."

This makes me sad as I feel I have every right to chase my father. Whilst I understand that a person may have formed a new life, I think that every child has a right to know their parent, whoever that may be.

So I googled "find a missing relative" and all these websites came up offering 1000's of people on databases (makes you wonder what privaqcy rights we ACTUALLY have here) but to be honest, my dad isn't the type to be posting things on the internet anyway, so I guess thats a bit of a dead end. I suppose I could do the standard thing and hire some sort of detective, but I don't really have the money and I kind of want to do this myself in a strange sort of way.

Oh well, back to the drawing board.