Genealogy Chat

Bear with me....typing below.....

Have just received the birth certificate of my partners grandfather. The story behind him is that he was born Sept 1922 and was ilegitimate and he was adopted by the mothers husband when she married him 6 years later. In the meantime, mother and child lived in a workhouse. There was no record, aparantly, of this child until the adoption in 1928. Well, i found the child registered with mothers maiden name in Sept Q of 1922 and sent for certificate. Today, it came with the exact date of birth correct, 6/9/1922 but down with adopted surname, father named and birth registered in 1928!! How is this, i sent for the birth certificate in 1922 and the GRO have obviously found something which shows it was reregistered in 1928 and sent me that one. I am very confused. We have the marriage cert of the mum and she married in 1923, even more confused. What are your opinions on this one? Claire xx

Hi Claire I believe if you were adopted you were issued with another birth cert when this happened. I'm sure any adoptees will correct me if I'm wrong. So even though the mother and father married a year after his birth, the father didn't adopt him until 5 years later. Of course this doesn't necessarily mean he was the natural father Jeanette x

It sounds to me that rather than adopt the boy the husband accepted him as his natural son and the marriage meant that his birth could be legitimised ie reregistered with fathers name.

Thanks for this. I am confused as the birth is clearly there registered in 1922 with the mothers name. It is this certificate that i sent for but the GRO have sent me the one that is registered 6 years later. The confirmation you get with the certificate has got all my index references crossed out and new ones written next to it by the staff at the GRO, does this mean that the GRO have some knowledge that this birth certificate i sent for does not exist anymore? Regards, Claire

Yes, if birth is reregistered the old entry would be obsolete, unlike with adoption when the original remains.

Claire I'm not absolutely sure but it could be that they only hand out the original to certain family members or you have to apply through the adoption agency or such like. Why not retitle your thread something like Need help from Adoptees which will attract somone with the necessary knowledge Jeanette x

Judith obviously has the knowledge! lol

Thanks Judith. Would the mother have had to tell the registrar that she had already registered this child back in 1922 when she want to re-register him in 1928? Wonder why they waited 5 years to re-register the child from when the mother married who she did. Claire xx

You could be right Jeanette, i was thinking that maybe the man never adopted the child and just re-registered the child with his surname. This is very confusing, doesnt take much for me, lol. Claire xx

Did the re-registration coincide with the birth of another child? They may have reregistered in order for all their children to have the same surname. Also, the re-registration is round about the time the Adoption Act was passed and they may have wished to 'regularise' their position, thus saving the child the embarrassment (and maybe even the knowledge) of his illegitimacy. Marjorie