A tragic tale of mistaken identity unfolded in Burnie yesterday before the parliamentary inquity into adoption practices between 1950 - 1988.

The woman and her husban - who did not wish to be identified - told how she had pored over electoral rolls, canvassed schools and placed birthday notices in the paper - all in a search for the wrong child.

"I did some very devious things trying to find my son," she said.

"I searched for that name for years, bar breaking into social welfare, I was going to; that was on my mind."

The woman was 18 when she gave birth in Launceston's Queen Victoria Hospital in 1967 to a son she never saw because she was anaethetised for the forceps delivery.

About four years later, after she had married and given birth to a second baby, a child endowment letter from the Department of Social Security alerted her to a baby that it obviously thought was hers - and consequently she did as well.

It wasn't until 18 years later that she discovered, through a Freedom of Information application, that she had been confused with another woman with exactly the same name.

The son she had thougth was hers was in fact someones else's.

"Her name and notes were on my file," the woman said.

The woman finally tracked down her real son in 1989.

She told the inquiry how her son's upbringing was a major disappointment to her.

She said his home life had been strict and very religious, and he had left at 14 to live on the streets.

The Inquiry Continues: