Genealogy Chat

Hi,

I'm currently helping my OH trace his family tree, his dad was adopted following his birth in London and grew up in Lancashire. We've found the registration of his birth in the records here and have a maiden name of his birth mother and the surname of his birth father but that's all the information we have. He has no more information than the name he was registered in and his date of birth. Does anyone have any pointers that could help us trace his relatives at all? My OH has wondered about the family for some time and currently has quite a small family so is intrigued to know if he perhaps has any other family out there.

Thank you
Meg

The birth entry you have found can be requested in the form of a birth certificate, which cost £9-25. which will give his full birth name, date of his birth ,name or names/ of birth parent/s,place of birth.

An entry of birth showing a maiden name and birth registered surname may not also have a fathers name listed on the certificate,it is entered in the names of the birth parent used at that time.

this is the site to use for ordering the certificate.

http://www.gro.gov.uk/---------- instrustions will guide you for odering.

Welcome to the boards Meg

Order the certificate using the references you found on the index from
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
It will cost you £9.25. and incs P&P

Thank you for your help. If anyone has any more advice for searches relating to adoptions it would be greatly appreciated. I've looked into my own family tree but with my mum at my side and a whole lot of information so this search is totally different and somewhat complicated!
Thank you again.

Once you get the certificate, research the parents names as you would have done for your own family.

Pay particular attention to their dates/years of death as that could give a clue to why there was an adoption. You might find that his mother died shortly after birth, or that his presumed father actually died before his conception.
The child of a married or widowed woman is assumed to be the child of her husband even if that is pyhsically impossible.
If your father in law was born during WW2, he could be the result of a relationship while his mother's husband was overseas.

Depending on when the birth occurred, you may be able to trace other siblings either via census, or looking for births after late 1911 with the same combination of maiden name and surname.

Look for the registration of the 'parents' marriage and possibly purchase that certificate. It would give the names of their fathers if known + the witnesses may also be 'family'.

Although its much more interesting to research for yourself, come back the thread if you get stuck.

Enjoy!

Megan.

It probally wont be as complicated or seem impossible once you have the birth certificate information to work from.At least one parents name will be on it ,that of the mother and maybe its a not so common name or surname matching records can sought.

Hello Megan,

I traced my ex partners family. He was adopted at the age of 3. I purchased ex's birth certificate. This did have his mothers and fathers name on so I entered them onto my tree and waited to see if anyone contacted me. Both names were in other people trees. In the end I did message one person my ex's half brother. It turned out they shared the same mother but not father. I was lucky that the one person I did make contact with welcomed the information that I had as he had suspected that there was another child. Also my exs mother died just before his 3rd birthday hence why he got adopted.

I still have his fathers name on my tree (he isnt living now) and I havent had any contact by anyone although 2 people have him in their trees. I have decided not to approach them.

Anne

It's encouraging to hear success stories! I'm not sure what we will do should we find any living relations but our first mission is to see if there are any out there! :-)

hi
i had the same problem with my father in law, we only found out he was adopted when i bought his marriage certificate. it had his adoptive parents listed, it took 2 years of phoning every agency etc and a bit of detective work ( i say a bit), to find his mother, his father not on birth certificate, the best information i found was from the archive department county hall, who gave us a copy of his adoption, although we had to show a copy of his death certificate first. so i would suggest. trying the council offices from where he was adopted GL

Well this is where we get confused in all honesty, as he was born in London but raised in the North of England, where are records likely to be kept?

Megan, Which records are you refering to?


I dont know which country Susan is refering to,but English/Welsh or NI dont list both parents on a marriage certificate,neither will any adoption details just be handed over in British countries even if the adoptee has passed away.

It could be Scotland that Susan is referring to Kay. All of the marriage certs I have for my fathers family ( they are all Scottish) name both the father and the mother of both the bride and groom.

Hi Tawny,,Could be but ref to-- county hall and council offices for adoption arent usual for E/W/Scotland,,and handing out adoption details of a deceased adoptee just wouldnt have happened in Britian.