Birth and Adoption Certificates

[MaryA]

Thanks to Glenys, Secretary of Leigh Group for clarification of the Adoption registration process.

The adoption certificate is a copy of the entry from the Adoption Register which is kept by the Registrar General and can only be issued from GRO. This would be the upto-date certificate for any adopted child and would 'over-write' the original birth registration, i.e., the one the adopted person would use for a passport or to get married. The name would be the one given by the adopted parents.

The original certificate should only be issued if the applicant can give enough information to the local Register Office to enable the staff to be able to identify the entry, ie. name of child, date of birth and mother's details. If the person had been officially adopted, a note would be made in the margin of the register after the Register General had made the entry in the Adopted Persons' Register.

Official adoption only commenced in 1926.

There is an official procedure for adopted persons seeking to contact their natural parents, this allows the identity of the natural parents to be protected unless they wish to be contacted. More details are on the GRO website. Sometimes, depending on when the birth took place, counselling takes place before the adopted person is given the details which would allow them to identify their original birth entry.

With regard to the second paragraph. If the father marries the mother after the birth, the father does not have to adopt his own child. This procedure is known as re-registration after marriage. The parents complete a special form and submit it to the local Registrar together with their marriage certificate. A complete new entry is made and a new certificate with the words "on the authority of the Registrar General" in the date of registration box can be purchased. The original birth entry would have a note in the margin to say that the birth had been re-registered and any future copies would be from the new entry. The original birth entry would never be issued.

Column 10 is for the addition of any new forenames to be added but only within the first twelve months following the date of registration. The names can be added by baptism or by usage and the parents would have to have completed the appropriate form for this purpose.
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