Genealogy Chat

Sorry if I offend but reading all these adopition threads makes we wonder about things. If someone is adopted what do they use as their place of birth for all official documents for instance if they were born in Newcastle but adopted in Norwich.

Hi, I am adopted, I was Born in Blackpool and adopted in derby.. officially and legally i put down Blackpool as my birthplace. This is the correct required info on legal documents. your original Birth cet will state the place you were born. when you are adopted, your new cert will also state the place of your birth.

They can only have one place of birth!

Heather - yeah, right, unlike all those pesky ancestors who change their mind about which county, let alone which town they were born in, from census to census!!!

Hi Pippa I can see what you mean ...I was born in one town in Devon but adopted at 6 weeks and brought up in another town. On official documents, I put my actual place of birth, but if I'm talking to people for instance, then I count my 'home town' as the one I was adopted into. Mandy :) PS: LOL Nell!!

I know I am silly but I wasn't sure how far things were taken to erase the birth circumstances and embrace the 'new family'. After doing all this it turns out that my Mum has been lying for the past 46 years about where she was born and her mum even worked at the hospital she was born in. Mum has to console herself that she wasn't born in Gillingham but boring old Chatham instead.

It's never occured to me to put anything other than where I was actually born. Jess x

But surely mum has seen her birth certificate? Or do you mean she was lying by choice?

Her mother never gave my Mum her birth cert until she eventually got it out then other year when we were checking some other family tree info. My mum has never had a passport or a driving licence so no need to verify it. Jess, Putting it like that makes it simple to work out!

I don't see why Chatham is more boring than Gillingham??

Mum always told me Gillingham was posher (I have no idea as I have never been) and Chatham boring as that is where they lived. Her Dad was in the army.

Its amazing that someone could live that long without needing a birth certificate for some sort of document or application, isnt it!

Certainly is. It makes you realise how easily our ancestors get confused. My mum did get married twice without them asking for her birth cert as well!

Its not really THAT amazing - i still dont have a copy of my full birth cert- I have a short one in my adopted name, and never really needed anything else, its been perfectly adequate for the past ( censored) years. Jess

I'm not adopted, but like Jess I just used the short version for identification purposes. I only got my full birth cert when I began doing my family tree - though I already knew what it would say. The one item of interest is that my father registered me 'by declaration' ie he went into his local register office and gave them the details which were passed on to the register office in the area where I was born.

I only ever had a short birth certificate but I always knew which city I was born in. When I was back in England visiting family I decided to get my full certificate... it was really interesting to find out my actual place of birth, rather than just a city name (pity they knocked it down)