A Scots father who was abandoned on a doorstep as a baby 49 years ago has launched a bid to trace his long lost family.

Genetic scientist Andrew Rowan was just days old when he was led outside a house in Falkirk, wrapped in blankets. He spent the first year of his life in a children's home before being adopted by a Dalkeith couple, who never revealed to him he was not their genetic son.

The father of three, who works for Cancer Research UK, now hope to find out if he has any long lost brothers or sisters in the area.

Andrew was found on the doorstep of 17 Garden Terrace by a teenager and spent the first year of his life in Redding Children's Home. Officials named him Andrew Kirk, after Scotland's patron saint and the town where he was found. However, his name was changed when he was adopted by Margaret and Walter Rowan and taken to live in Dalkeith, where they ran a pub.

Andrew grew up with no idea that he was a foundling, or even that he was adopted. The truth only came to light nearly 30 years later, the day after his adopted mother died. He then found a box in the bedroom of her North Berwick which contained a letter addressed to Andrew which read: "This was not the way it was meant to be, but there was never the right time". The box also contained his original birth certificate, with blank spaces where the names of his mother and father should have been entered.

Mr Rowan said: "I found adoption documents, official letters and two newspaper cuttings about an abandoned baby.

"I'd never suspected I was adopted, let alone I had been abandoned on a doorstep. It was an amazing revelation to take in.

"Less than 24 hours before I'd been plunged into mourning my mum's death. Now, I'd found out she wasn't my mother after all and that made my grief much worse: I wished- and still wish- I'd never found out. It instantly changed who I was, leaving me with so many questions, but no answers."

Mr Rowan and his wife Wendy, who is also a scientist, live in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, and have three children, 20-year-old Emma, 17-year-old Ross and 15-year-old Kerria, who was born two years after Andrew found out the truth about his background.

He said: "Holding her as a newborn, I wondered how anyone could abandon their child. What circumstances could have driven her to leave me? Did she ever think about me, especially on my birthday?"

Andrew has now decided to work to trace any relatives who are still living in the Falkirk area. He has been particularly motivated by the tale of a brother and sister who were abandoned in Grangemouth in the 1960s and reunited recently as adults.

He believes it is now time to learn about his real past, adding: "It was such a shock to me, nothing prepared me for the revelation. But looking back, many aspects of my life fall in to place.

"I have green eyes, which is unusual, and my mother had blue. I remember when I gave blood it was discovered I was blood group B. I asked my mother what group she was and she couldn't tell me.

"We moved from Dalkeith to North Berwick when I was 12. I now believe this was to protect me from anyone who might have told me the truth. And I never had access to my birth certificate until I was in my thirties.

"It must have been dreadful for my mother keeping this secret. She must have been scheming all the time, but I wouldn't have changed a thing about my upbringing or my relationship with my mother.

"Only now do I want some answers. I was found at an address near the bus station in Falkirk, but I believe there is a good chance my birth mother was from that area. Falkirk, Grangemouth, or somewhere near Glasgow perhaps."

He added: "I want to know where I come from and if I have any siblings. I have always wanted a brother or a sister."