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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Topic started by: chris23005 on Thursday 05 January 17 20:14 GMT (UK)
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I am not really sure where to post this as it covers England, Scotland and Ireland!
I am helping a friend try to discover her birth family and with the help of dna we have made a good start. Her birth mother was also adopted and We are pretty sure we have identified her birth parents as the husband was lost at sea and had a very distinctive name so has been easily found. we have also found a marriage for him so know the name of the birth mother. However tragically his wife gave birth two years later .... Possibly to twins ..... And died in childbirth. Her husband was drowned at sea shortly afterwards. The rumour goes that the family couldnt cope with bringing up two babies, so they kept one and had the other, a girl, adopted. Now the problem starts. We can find a birth for a boy in the right quarter and the right year (and again a distinctive name) BUT NOT RECORDS which register the other birth or the mothers death. This is probably in Hammersmith, London, but the mother was Irish and the father Scottish!! The adoption was arranged by an adoption society in London so guessing it should have been registered there.
So ...... Where do we look next? Were a lot of records destroyed in that area during the blitz? Its all stopped just as we got started!! :-\ any suggestions gratefully received.
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The nationality of the parents has no bearing on the Birth Registrations.
Births MUST be registered in the Registration District in which they took place.
Similarly Deaths MUST be recorded in the Reg. District in which the death took place.
If one of the twins was stillborn, there is a separate Stillbirths Register, which is NOT open to the public.
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The record we cannot find is for a baby who definitely lived and for the mother who we have been told died in childbirth. Whilst births should be registered I know for a fact that a child born to a person in another tree was illegally handed straight to the adoptive parents immediately after birth and the birth was never registered to the natural mother in order to cover tracks! Even hospital records did not make reference to the birth. Hmmmmm..... Thank you. The mystery continues....
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You haven't given a date, but prior to 1926 adoption was often an informal arrangement and there were not necessarily any legal papers or legal steps that needed to be recorded.
I note that in both your posts you indicate that there is room for doubt about this:
rumour goes
and we have been told
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May I suggest that you try to find out what happened to the mother? Since the name is unusual, then look for all deaths of that surname - and all marriages, just in case. This would be one way to begin to prove the version of events that you have been told. They may well be true, but you may have to prove it in small steps.
Nell
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Yes we have already looked for all surname deaths (1940) ..... Currently Also in process of requesting adoption records so that may help too ..... An unusual scenario .....three generations of adoptions! Thanks for your input.
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My husband's father married twice and we were always told that after having two sons his first wife had a daughter and that the baby died and the mother died not long afterwards of a broken heart. What actually happened was that the baby girl died aged 6 weeks from "Asphyxia in a convulsion due to gastric disturbance" which covers many things I suppose. Her mother died 2 years later from cardiac arrest, pneumonia and flu. So I guess people just said her cardiac arrest was a broken heart.
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Yes it just shows how family stories become embroidered to suit over the years. This is so difficult - trying to find a needle in a haystack here. Thanks for your story though - it helps put things in perspective!
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It might be an idea to expand the search for the mother over a larger time frame. As well as a death, look for a marriage.
It may have been seen as an easier option or a way to protect children to tell them that their mother had died (with no more questions asked), rather than tell them that their mother abandoned them or went off with another man. I am not implying that this is what happened here, but as per Lizzie's example, family stories can sometimes be wrong.
If you can't find a second birth registered for the "twin" it may be that this was invented to explain the mother's death or disappearance?
Have you found proof of the father's death at sea?
Sorry to appear negative, but as you can't find proof of the birth and death, that made me a little suspicious.
Have you explored the possibility that the birth or death might be registered under a different surname? As you say the name is unusual, have you checked for spelling errors?
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I am not really sure where to post this as it covers England, Scotland and Ireland!
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So ...... Where do we look next? Were a lot of records destroyed in that area during the blitz? Its all stopped just as we got started!! :-\ any suggestions gratefully received.
No civil records (births, marriages, deaths) were destroyed so it looks like you need to expand your search as has already been suggested.
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Yes we have looked for all of those things. Basically what happened is that my friend did a dna test before christmas which showed up a high match to someone who contacted her. Of course she hadnt started her tree yet so got thown in at the deep end. She knows her birth mother and has her own adoption file in which it states that her mother's father was in merchant navy as engineer and lost at sea the same year as the birth of his child and that mother died in childbirth. (Two adoptions here .... Friend AND her mother were both adopted). DNA contact checked chromosome match and confirmed link on his mothers side and gave a list of family names. So we did a search on all surnames for a death at sea and got a clear match, esp as his middle name and fathers middle name also appear in family tree of contact. The seaman's next of kin was shown as his father (which would be correct as his wife had died in childbirth three months beforehand) and gave an address.
Marriage .... Found a marriage two years previously ..... Only marriage for this name over a two year period ..... He would have been too young to get married before then. Same couple had a boys birth registered to them on same date as my friends birth mother but no sign of a girl. Obviously as we dont know her birth name yet we are searching in the dark. The story about my friends mother being a twin was told to her by her adoptive mother..... But cannot be proved. Of course there is also the possibility that they were not married, but maybe engaged ..... In which case ...... We are back to square one! Is there any way of checking the births and deaths on a particular day?
My friend is actively requesting her birth mothers adoption file but this will take time as her birth mother is still alive. However a new law has come in which allows her to do this especially as she has already met her b mother (who wants no further contact).
So you can see that, although we are fully aware that a paper trail is needed,it is not easy to provide one at present and this has all escalated due to someone contacting about a strong dna match from someone who has only just started!! Its also v difficult for an adopted person to deal with all of this unemotionally ...... Hence the reason I am helping out.