Adoption - Haedicke

[suziq]

Hi
I'm researching a family for a friend.

The family in question are called Haedicke.  I have found them in 1901.  Frederick and Jenny say they are from Germany and their son William is 13 and born in London @ 1888.  They are in Hampstead.

In 1911 they are in St. Johns Wood and it states that William is adopted.  Is there anyway of finding out where he was adopted or an original name?

Also unable to find the family in 1891.

Any help gratefully received
Suziq

[avm228]

They're in Ballards Lane, Finchley in 1891 (Fritz and Fanny* Haedicke, both born Germany, with "son" William, 3, b Finchley). Also in the household are a Felix Merseburg, brother in law, and one servant: RG12/1057/13/18.

* I see that she is certainly Jenny in 1901 and at death in 1926, so the 1891 is possibly an enumerator's error, mistranscribing from the household schedule.

[suziq]

Hi, I did see that family but I'm not sure it's the same one as further down the page there are other children mentioned and in the 1911 census it stated that Jenny had never given birth to any live children.
Am I reading the page incorrectly?

Suziq

[avm228]

There are no other children mentioned in the household on the 1891 census return itself.

Don't rely on the transcription, which on Ancestry has incorporated the whole of the next-door Reynolds family into the Haedicke household and turned the Reynolds' children into Haedickes!

Anna

[suziq]

Ahh, I have to say i was a bit confused by the original and the Ancestry listing so thank you for that!!!

Do you know if there is anyway of tracing the adoption at all?  (Just to ask a bit more!!!!!!!)
Thank you for your help

Suziq

[avm228]

Sory - I drafted a long reply about the adoption and then lost it.

Formal adoption (with records as we know them) only came in from 1927, with the coming-into-force of the Adoption of Children Act 1926.  Before then you may find records if he was "adopted" from an institution which kept such records, but how you would trace it I just don't know.  Adoptions also in those days were commonly informal arrangements between members of an extended family, for which no accessible records are likely to exist.

He doesn't seem to have been registered (at birth) as Haedicke.  Sorry I can't come up with anything very concrete - there are many threads on the site about pre-1926 Act adoptions which may give you something to go on.

Anna

[suziq]

Thanks Anna for all your help
Suziq

[snowball]

Hi - this could well be Frederick in 1906 in Maida Vale, north London, having a trustee appointed... http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/issues/27917/pages/3830 (top of page).
Rob

[suziq]

Hi Rob
Thank you for that, it does look like it could be him.  But would he still be living in St. john's Wood and saying he was a retired merchant if he had been made bankcrupt?
Suziq