My husbands grandfather was adopted. Is there any way I can find his ancestry?

Question:

My husbands grandfather was adopted. Is there any way I can find his ancestry?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Of COURSE, there are ways to find his ancestry! Does that mean that someone can "guarantee" you will? NO. And DNA does not identify immediate relatives by name.
Many "informal" adoptions happen, and not in the same manner as we today are used to. I located an affidavit of an adoption dated 1869, filed in with land records. No agency or anything else was involved, but Dad wanted to insure it was legal and recorded.
However, the likelihood of finding it on the internet is very slim. The best place to find info is within the family, in stories that may be passed down, which can lead to verifiable clues. What do you know about possible siblings, who were perhaps older (or younger), who knew about the adoption, and could have overheard comments about the baby being taken in, perhaps from a relative with an unfortunate pregnancy. Or..in the 1930's, many families were simply poor, due to the depression, and allowed children to go to other families/ relatives. It is possible that if the siblings are not alive, their children might have been aware of what really happened.
He may have come from an orphanage, also. And there are SOME orphanage records online. It can also be POSSIBLE that a newspaper report exists, for example... little Johnny was orphaned afer his parents, John and Mary Smith, died in car wreck.
The key lies within the family, to examine EXACTLY what is known, and build on that.