Genealogy Chat

Hi Eileen
Thants ok, i understand it is obviously much much harder for someone like yourself to understand why people 'allowed' the babies to be given away, as you have been through it, people who haven't don't get the full emotion attached, although we can sympathise we can't empathise xx
I suppose that back then in those days women tended to agree and obey with the male, although I would never dream about giving my children away, times were different then, and for whatever reasons, sadly stuff like this happened xx
i know this won't help you at all but reading your message I wish that I could have adopted both you and your sister
Siobhan xx

Wow Joan, you were amazingly lucky.........unfortunately I don't know the town my sister went to.........I went to Guildford, its possible she may have done the same as we both have the same registrar named under the word adopted on our birth certs. I know from my much older half-sibs. that she is my full sister, and from several other sources, which are totally reliable......

....my adoptive mother only wanted one child, so we were separated. I really don't know why she had me at age just under two, when she could have had my sister as a baby only a few weeks old. I used to think that my sister went first as it was easier to place babies............but not long before she died, my adoptive mother was drifting into Altzheimers, and did not remember what she had kept secret all those years, which was that she did know I had a sister, and could have had both of us, from what she said.

Siobhan - I can't believe that your grandfather made that poor second wife give up her child - thats cruel - the poor child must have wondered what he had done, and where his mum had gone.........these adoption stories get worse and worse, such sadness and loss...............I wonder if she thought it was worth it.....

....Sorry, that sounds rude, he was your grandad so you must have loved him.......but it seems an awful thing to do.........

Eileen
birth name

Thanks everyone, I'll have to see about getting the file and see if it has any details, its funny in a way because when my grandad came back my grandmother died not too long after, my grandad then married my nan, who had a young son that he made her give up for adoption too.

Fingers crossed Eileen, good luck
xxx

Similar story here Joan - my b.mother was married with three children - in the war she had two more, me and my full sister, not by her husband.

I have our father's name on my birth cert. but my full sister sixteen months younger, does not, as he was posted around the time of her birth. So she has no name in the 'father' column....

.....We were adopted to different couples, and I have not found her yet......

looking for my full sister
birth names Jennifer Ann ........no father's name
dob. 22nd September 1945
born in Woking Maternity Hospital
our mother
Muriel Ethel M...........nee H..........
lived in Bisley

Eileen
birth name

Hi Joan,

What I meant to say was that if a married woman registers a birth then her husband is assumed to be the father of the child UNLESS she tells the registrar otherwise.

Your mum must have said that her husband was not the father of your half-sister.

As the baby in question was not put up for adoption until after Siobhan's grandfather came back from the war, I thought that the grandmother may have registered him with her husband's surname.

Kath. x

Found this on the web:

Up until the 1970's, as well as having an adoption arranged through an adoption agency or a local authority, it was also possible for adoptions to be arranged privately, through a solicitor, doctor, friend or your mother could have possibly arranged it by herself. Some children found themselves adopted within their own family, by grandparents or other relatives. The difficulty with private adoptions is likely to be that no records exist.
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If the adoption was arranged through a local authority or an adoption society, records may still exist. Local authorities may also have information about adoptions that took place in their area, even though the authority did not arrange the adoption itself.
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Adoption agencies have only been required to keep records since 1959. Court records during this time were also not kept indefinitely. However, sometimes it is possible for old papers to be located, and your Post Adoption Social Worker should be able to discuss your options and advise you.
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The amount of information available about your birth parents and the circumstances of your adoption will depend on how recently your adoption took place.

Obviously he has already had the counselling etc provided by a Social worker to get in touch with you. He would need to go back to the agency he originally contacted and ask if they could send him a copy of his file. He may have just been told the bare bones of the story in the first instance.

I hope he was adopted through an agency like Barnardos, they keep everything relating to the circumstances and also have a photo of every child accepted into their care.

Thanks everyone I think it may have been WW2, as my grandmother was only born in 1921!!
Where would he apply for his 'File'
Siobhan x

Do you mean WW1 or 2? Legalised adoption didn't come in until 1927.
If it was WW2 then there is a possibility that the circumstances around his birth will be recorded in his file.

I would imagine that as the mother was married at the time then her husband would be named as the father (whether or not he was, as he wasn't there to contest this). A married woman's husband is always assumed to be the father of her child unless another man admits paternity.

Kath. x

Can the person apply for a copy of their adoption files? Is there no father named on his birth certificate?

Would anyone know how I would find the father of a baby born during WW1, my grandfather went off to war and my grandmother had a son who was given up for adoption when my grandfather returned. He managed to trace us a few years ago but doesn't know his father was and most people who may have known are no longer with us
Thanks
Siobhan x