I traced my birth mother myself last year. It was an emotional roller coaster. The end result was that she was disgusted that I found her and didn't want anything to do with me. But I now know where I come from, who I am related to (on my birth mother's side as she says she does not remember my father's name) and have some medical history. I have two half brothers as well. At one point in my life I owned a house 5 mins away from one of my half brothers, my uncle and grandmother. They now live only 25 mins away. I am in the town regularly. But everyone deserves to know where they come from, if only to know who to stay away from. The last thing you would want for your children is for them to meet someone, fall in love and find out they are related by birth (which has happened). Good luck if you decide to search. Whilst I always say to people to go through 'the system' as my birth mother said she didn't want contact the social worker closed my file with me knowing very little so that is why I did my own search. Do not expect anything to happen quickly, most letters take 12 weeks to be answered so it is a long road.