Genealogy Chat

Hi Debbie, I agree that there was no formal adoption then. I have discovered an adoptee in my family - he started off on the 1871 census as a "nurse-child', then 10 yrs later as an "adopted son", then 10 yrs later as "son".

I have since discovered that his real parents, who were very young, lived next door. I can only assume the neighbours helped with the baby......and he never went back home. And his parents went on to have 8 more children. And he was my great-grandad.

The weird thing is that my Mum's maiden name actually wasn't right! She used the adopted name without knowing any different!

I knew it wouldn't be easy, my first thought was that maybe she was their great niece and they adopted her due to her parents not being around. But i've gone through the adopted family to see if there could be a link between them and that's why she was adopted. But there isn't anything.
I might try my local records office and see if i can find any wills or legal documents relating to the adopted father maybe it might mention something about her or her parents.
Glad i'm not to only one to come across this problem.
Thanks for your help
Debbie

Yes, this is a very difficult area. My grandfather was born 1899-1900 & was informally adopted from very young by his stepfather (whose surname was a very common one!) On all other records after this, including 2 marriages for my grandfather, he gave his stepfather as his father.
I still don't know what grandfather's 'real' birth surname was and no details of who his mum was either, so I have no hope of finding a birth certificate, which may or may not name his natural father.

Good luck!

This is really difficult. My mother was also adopted before legal adoptions and formal details carried out. I was luck enough to have a paper my mum gave to me which regarding her adoption but it was all done by a solicitor. Strangely enough on my mums birth certificate it has her mothers name down but not her fathers. If you read the document very carefully we have from the solicitor she appears to have been adopted by her natural father who was married to another person at the time, even though she was always referred to as her father's adopted daughter. The other 'thing' I found out is that one of her middle name's was the surname of her real father. Dunno if this helps, I know how hard this is and think I was seriously luckly finding this document which mentions the word adoption about twice!

Good Luck

There was no such thing as legal adoption as we recognise it now. It would have been done very informally and no records were kept. Have you found her birth reg?

She probably wouldn't have listed her adopted father as he wasn't her biological father.

Could it be that she was with her mother on the 1881 but the head wasn't her father, so it says adopted?

Does anyone have any idea how I would find out if an adoption took place?
The reason is my great grandmother is listed as adopted in the 1881 census. On her marriage certificate it has no father listed.
I have 2 questions, how were adoptions handled in and around 1872? (the year my great grandmother was born) And why didn’t she quote her adopted father as her father on her marriage certificate?
I know adoption was made legal in England the 1920’s, but how were the dealt with before then.
Any help would be most appreciated as currently this line in my family just comes to an end with my great grandmother.
Many thanks
Debbie