Question

How likely is it that an adoptee can locate their birth father?

Answer 1

Here is my experience.

   My father David Wihelm Chapman was born 5 Jan 1931 and died 29 Sep 2005.  Well to make a long story short his grandmother Delilah V. Helms adopted him. and the record was sealed.  She had hoped to keep his birth a secret.  In 2007 the law changed here in Massachusetts and adoption records could be accessed with my birth certificate and David's death certificate.  With $40 I sent in to vital records of Massachusetts and found out his father was from Wellfleet, MA otherwise the ancestry of my father would not be known as no one would ever speak of it.

Answer 2

That's impossible to answer in general, but the chances have never been higher. Even fragments of names or scraps of information can be used to generate relatively short lists of candidates. Even with no information DNA testing can identify relatives.

Answer 3

According to Family Tree DNA, 20 to 25% of adopted males who are Y-DNA tested (e.g. Y-DNA67) through them have found their direct paternal line relatives.

Comments

And autosomal DNA testing can identify DNA cousins of both genders, on both sides of your family, which can provide strong clues towards identifying both the father and the mother.

Answer 4

In addition to the excellent suggestions to start with a DNA test, you may want to consider working with the Adoption Angels project to get additional assistance.