Adoption Records

[Blue70]

How would I go about finding if a child was formally adopted? The child was born in 1945 we know their birth name and their new name as the couple who adopted him as a baby lived in the same neighbourhood. He later found out about his real parentage as an adult. We don't think there would have been a formal adoption carried out at the time but it would be interesting to know if there are any ways of confirming it.

Blue

[dickiesam]

Hi,
Which birth cert does the 'child' have? I understand with a formal adoption there are usually 2. One is the original cert from first registration of the birth with his birth name, birth mother and sometimes the father's name. While the birth mother would have the original, copies are only available to the adoptee as an adult. The other 'official' cert is an amended one issued to the adoptive parents after a formal adoption.

There are circumstances where only one cert exists such as when a man, who is not the child's father, marries the child's mother and she may be either previously unmarried or divorced. The man may formally adopt the child to 'regularise' the legal relationship between the man and the child within the family. The birth cert will then carry a notation of the adoption by the Registrar, usually in or close to Column 10. If there is only the original birth cert without a notation I doubt if there was a formal adoption.

There is good information about adoption birth certs on the GRO site, the same site you buy certs from http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certi ... efault.asp

I have a fair bit of information about adoptions and who is entitled to what. I'd be happy to send it to you if you PM me with your email address. If you wish I would be happy to have a look at the birth cert if you scan it and send it to my email address.

Dickiesam

[Blue70]

Hi Dickiesam

I ordered the birth certificate earlier today so don't know what it says yet. So if the birth certificate has no notation that would suggest no formal adoption then. I'll wait to see what it says.

Thanks,

Blue

[dickiesam]

So if the birth certificate has no notation that would suggest no formal adoption then

I'd be so bold as to say that if there is only one cert and it shows the child, his birth mother, possibly the father's name and there are no notations, there was no formal adoption procedure.

Dickiesam

[Katie]

It should be recorded in column 10 of the certificate if adopted.

[chrisrose]

My Dad was orphaned at the age of 8 in 1933. He was "adopted" by his Father's sister and her husband. I've never known if the adoption was official or just an arrangement. When his "adopted" father (always known to us all, including Dad as Uncle Tom) died in 1967, Dad was named as the informant and adopted son. He never changed his name and his birth cert has no information in column 10, so can I assume the adoption was never made legal? (Doesn't matter in the least, but would be nice to know for completeness).

Chris

[Blue70]

I've got the birth certificate now and I was surprised to see that, contrary to my expectations, it was actually a formal adoption. Column 10 the last column in the "table" has a diagonal line through it but in the space after that column it has the word Adopted underlined and the name of the registrar who made the note who was the same registrar for the original birth entry.

Blue

[dickiesam]

Hi,
Have you confirmed the sad circumstances of the child being orphaned at age 8 or had he been orphaned earlier? It would appear that because he was adopted by his father's sister and her husband he would have assumed her married name?

Dickiesam

[Katie]

While I was at the Museum yesterday helping a lady find something in the Echo for 1960 I came across a announcement in the births,marriages and eaths for a Adoption. First time I have found one of these.

[chrisrose]

Hi Dickiesam,
Was your last post a response to mine? If so, yes I have all the details. My grandfather died first then my grandmother died of breast cancer a couple of years later. I have all the certificates and although I didn't know the details Dad had always told us how his Mum died when he was a little boy.I have a letter from him to his Mum about 4 months before she died when she was in hospital and he was staying with his Auntie Nellie and Uncle Tom. She did come home at some point because she died at home and Auntie Nellie was with her and informed her death. Dad also had a brother Harry who when their Mum died was "adopted" by Nellie's brother who lived next door to Nellie! Dad definitely never used Tom's surname.
Thanks for your interest.
Chris

[dickiesam]

Hi Chris,
My apologies! Should have addressed the response better. I know of several 'informal' unofficial adoptions and with all of them it was a close relative who took in the child. Legally I suppose it was foster-care but it really doesn't matter if everything worked out in the child's best interests.

Dickiesam

[Blue70]

This side of the family is quite complicated so this birth certificate has cleared up a few things. Thanks Dickiesam for your help.

Blue

[Glenys]

In answer to Blue70 and dickiesam, I thought I'd try to explain things.

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.

[dickiesam]

Hello Glenys,
Thank you for that explanation of procedures in an adoption. Hope you don't mind but I have copied it down for future reference.

Brian

[MaryA]

I've also copied it to our For Posterity Board, giving credit to Glenys, thanks.

[chrisrose]

Thanks for that Glenys. So my interpretation is that my Dad was never legally adopted then (see above). Am I correct?
Chris

[Glenys]

In answer to Chrisrose..... if he never changed his name, I presume that it was not an official adoption.

Many

[Glenys]

Sorry I pressed a button too soon ...

I was going to say that many people were 'taken in' by close relatives but never actually adopted. It happened in my family when my grandmother had babies very close together and her sister only had one child. My grandmother had nine children altogether so the middle ones stayed with their aunt and uncle.

[Blue70]

There's at least one case of taking in going back to the 1800s in my ancestry where there's an oldest child on the Census who was born well before the parents' marriage. The parents were too young to have had the child so some sort of taking in had taken place probably of a relative's child that had lost a parent or two.

Another insight into parentage on certificates. A member of my family had their step-father's name instead of their actual father entered on their marriage certificate. The actual father was deceased and presumably because the step-father attended the wedding with the mother he was entered on the certificate as the father.

Blue

[chrisrose]

Thanks Glenys. I had always assumed it was unofficial, but my sister thought it had been legalised. As I said earlier it doesn't actually matter as we know what happened to everyone, but I was just curious.
Chris