Family skeletons

[Doughty]

I want to trace my husbands side of the family as well as my own.  But my father in law never new his natural father and his mother always refused to tell him anything about him, even his name. But when looking up my father in law's birth record i discovered that the name he goes by isn't the name his birth was registered under.  It seems his mother was unmarried at the time of his birth so his birth was registered in his mothers maiden name.  She then married when he was about 3 and he took the name of his step father.

Am i right in thinking that as his birth certificate has his step fathers name on it rather than what is says in the birth records that his step father must have legally adopted him?  And if I were to send for the original birth cert in his mothers maiden name would that be supplied or would it be refused due to the adoption? (i'm hoping for a fathers name)

And should i even be contemplating opening this can of worms. 

[KathMc]

I think if you have your father-in-law's permission, go ahead, but don't do anything without his okay at this stage in your research.

Kath

[acceber]

And if I were to send for the original birth cert in his mothers maiden name would that be supplied or would it be refused due to the adoption? (i'm hoping for a fathers name)

It would be supplied, but unless both parents signed the register then it is unlikely to contain a father's name. The original certificate will have 'adopted' stamped on the end of the certificate if he has been formally adopted and another certificate issued. We found a member of the family had given a baby up for adoption and looked in the GRO indexes for the likely years and found a name which turned out to be the right person. We obtained the record fine, and it just said the mothers name, address, etc and 'adopted' in the margin.

Godd Luck!
acceber

[Doughty]

Thanks for replying, i've decided to concentrate on his mothers side for now as she is really keen to learn more and hopefully when he sees what i've done he will want to know more about his own side.