Genealogy Chat

Margaret Electoral rolls are kept in local record offices. The British Library at St Pancras has a complete set, but they are kept offsite so they need a few days' notice to produce them. nell

Thanks to you all for taking the time to reply - JULIE - you have given me lots of ideas - you seem to know a lot about the Irish community in London in the 60's!! It was interesting you talking about the possibility of emmigration to Australia - my adopted parents emigrated there in 1988 - it would be amazing if my birth parents were there too! How do I go about searching electoral rolls for 1962? Thanks Maggie xx

Have you had access to your file from Social Services or Adoption Agency - which hopefully would give you background information regarding your adoption, ie reasons, family circumstances, siblings, half siblings, even names of other family members who knew about you. You can also ask if there is a message from your birth parents for you or you could leave one for them if they ever made contact. 1962 was also a time when a lot of people emigrated to Australia/New Zealand/Canada many on the assisted passage scheme. Is there a reason you think they returned to Ireland as many people arrived from Ireland in the 60's and I didn't hear about any going back - only after they'd retired. You can leave a message on the adoption section of Lookupuk*com and Missing-you*net. I also believe there are other adoption finding sites trying to put people in touch with each other. Another possibility is to look at the electors roll for 1962 at the address(s) your parents lived at. Also the years afterwards - you may find married names etc and/or if they stayed at the same place for years/children perhaps. You could phone up the local library for the area and see where they are held. Its then a case of trying to trace the people who lived at the same address or a neighbour. I managed to find the daughter of the neighbour I was looking for and the information was very helpful. If it was a boarding house the chances are that most were irish people who might be able to tell you whereabouts they came from in Ireland and also possibly where they moved to. You could also try contacting an Irish Centre local to where they lived - you may find that they haven't moved very far or that someone is related to them or knows them or where they moved to - the irish are a very close community.

Hi Margaret I traced my birth family with the help of Norcap, a recognised adoption organisation recommended to me by Social Services. They are also a registered charity. You do have to pay of course, but the charges are not too expensive and you have unlimited access to their counsellors. You can also use one of their researchers, and one of their intermediaries to make the initial contact on your behalf. They have a website at www.norcap.org and they did a brilliant job for me, particularly as I needed a lot of support after the contact had been made. Good luck and best wishes, Mandy :)

Where you go next depends on what you want to do. If you want to make contact with your birth parents, I suggest that you go to the homepage on this website and scroll down till you find Genealogy Resources, then click on Getting Started. There's a section there on Adoption. on the other hand, if you want to trace your family back, you need to find your birth parents' birth certs, which will have the names of your grandparents. Again, there's more information on this in the Getting started section. nell

Hi Maggie, On your birth certificate does it appear that your parents were married? If they were I would work back from the date of your birth looking for a marriage date for them on 1837 site. I'm sure others will offer other good suggestions. All the best with your search Sioux

Can anyone help me on to the next stage please? I have obtained my birth certificate and I have the name and occupation of my father and the name, maiden name and address (at the time of course!) of my mother. Where do I go next? At the time of my birth in Sept 1962 they were living in London but it's possible that after my adoption, they went to Ireland (where I believe they both came from in the first place). I'd be really really grateful for any advice at all. Many thanks Maggie :-)