Just to elaborate a little
Anyone who really doesn't think it worth spending a few pounds on a reliable trustworthy registered researcher might consider doing it themselves if they are an adopted person looking for a birth relative. Natural relatives who don't know the post adoptive name of the person they are seeking have little choice but to go to an ASA or adoption agency that arranged the adoption.
It's about assurance isn't it. If an agency is registered with the government as an adoption support agency, or if it is registered with Charity Commissioners as charitable body, even if it's just a membership organisation registered with Companies House as a company limited by guarantee. Then you know where you stand you have some comeback if it all goes wrong. If it is registered as all three of those things like some membership ASA's then all the better. PI's who belong to their professional organisation work to a code of ethics, if they are a large organisation they'll be registered as a company or a limited liability partnership and have to submit accounts.
Make no mistake, no one is going to search for and find your relative for absolutely nothing, unless it is one of those rare cases where you could have found them yourself at no or virtually no cost.
Some outfits with little other than a websites and ridiculously grandiose tittles that they've given themselves are registered with sweet nothing and make some frankly ridiculous claims they they could never substantiate.
If anyone tell you they've reunited umpteen thousand people. Thousands of them in just a few months, then ask for some proof. If they're a legitimate outfit it'll be fairly clear from their annual report and accounts which you'll be able to view on the Companies House or Charity Commission website or both.
If anyone claims to you that they are an expert on anything, ask them where they gained their qualification and working experience.
If any organisation claims to you that it is a "research foundation" that phrase has a specific meaning in the UK. Ask who made the charitable grant or legacy to set up the foundation. Ask who its Director of Research is and what past professorships etc, they have held and what other research post since gaining their doctorate or equivalent.
Anyone claiming to run a 'research foundation' who can't answer those question is probably just a person with delusions of grandeur. That's usually considered a psychiatric condition. You wouldn't want them turning up on your doorstep if you were the person being sought.
In fact anyone just turning up on the doorstep who isn't a qualified registered intermediary, should be fined and imprisoned under the Adoption & Children Act 2002 and Care Standards Act 2000. And they probably will be eventually if they continue to do so and to make false claims.
Robin
http://harritt.net
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