Genealogy Chat

Some years back I came across similar problem when trying to find out the birth family of my first husband who died in 1974. I was originally told it had to be the adopted person applying which seems a bit silly when he's no longer around to do this and I wanted to know for my both my sons sake where there Dad originated from, plus filling a few gaps in my tree. I gave up in the end then when I got the computer I tried asking about it again and one kind lady from this site told me if I had his adoption certificate (which I have) then I could apply to Kew for his birth certificate. I don't remember all the details as I didn't pursue it at the time. My sons felt if their Dad hadn't wanted to know then maybe it was best to leave things be. This year I happened to mention it to my sister in law and it seems she had the information I needed, names, place of birth etc. so now my bits of the jigsaw are beginning to fit in. I would have liked to meet the family if only to ask them a health question (both my first son and husband died of heart disease and one of my other sons has a heart problem). I know there are living relatives but I don;t feel I can go any further......well not just now. So.............don't give up. I;m sure there's a way and you'll find it and good luck.

Hi Kerry Your father didn't need his adoptive parents permission to get his original birth certificate and apply for his adoption records?. He was able to do this after 1975. I thank God for the internet because of it we are more informed. Years back when laws changed... only them in the know knew about it... the rest of us remained under the bucket with the rhubarb. Is your grandfather still alive? if so are you able to ask him if he has any details? Adoptive parents were often given the child's original birth name and name of birth mother. If your grandfather has since died is there any paperwork left of his that you can look through for clues? I've recently been helping someone search through a particular quarter in the births we started from A to Z and it's a HUGE job. Some quarters have 120 pages or more... fortunately we didn't do all 26 :-) You have the date of birth but do you know where he was actually born? (my brother's 1957 adoption certificate only gave country of birth and not actual place... it's since changed) If you know where your father was registered maybe we can 'chip in' and take a letter each and help you search through free ancestry. Armed with your list of names... you perhaps could go to that particular registration office and ask/beg/pleed a friendly person there to match a name with your date of birth. Just a suggestion but you need the registration district in order to do this. I've tried to get information from my adopted brother's file about my deceased mother... I was refused. I am named in his adoption file but they won't part with any info saying it's for my brother only. He at this stage is not interested in contact. Let us know how you go and good luck. Cheers Gerry

if you know his date of birth and where he eas born ,you can look up his birth registration, might need a few false starts but if you are determined and have money that you can invest you could try that way

No, your right im jsut a little bit frustrated. At the moment i jsut want it for genealogy, simply their names, year of birth and place of birth. he was adopted in 1952 so is it possible in 2052 i can access them???

its for many reasons, and i doubt you will manage to challenge the law. what exactly is it you want to know?

Im actually at the point of thinking of challenging the law, the fact is that my dads dad wouldnt let him go get his adoptin records and now hes deceased. i just dont understand why you cant acess records if the people involved are deceased. i didnt get to know my dad that well so i feel as though half my family is missing...im babbling now! thankyou, ill probably have to wait and see what information i am allowed. kerry

TURN RADIO TWO ON AND LISTEN IN FOR A BIT!! phone in on now

Kerry Sadly for you, I think the Law as it stands means that your Dad's birth information dies with him. But - depending on how much you WANT to find out, you could, in theory, trawl ALL births in your father's birth year and area and eliminate them one by one. A massive undertaking of course and desperately expensive if you need to buy certs. Your other option is to challenge the Law - again, massively expensive, but an appeal to your local MP??? OC

I recently wrote to barnardos where my dad was adopted to ask for any information. my dad is deceased, however they are still unable to provide any identifiable information, so i cannot put any more names on my family tree above my dad, so im really stuck and put off, dont know what to do. does anybody know a way around this, its not that i want to get into contact with them, howver does anybody know if that be the only last option??? please help kerry