Hi Lil
I've been following your thread hoping you would be able to break through. Such a shame that nothing came from your visit to the Mitchell Library today.
I do think you might need some specialist advice, not though the services of a genealogist necessarily. Tracing adoptions is incredibly difficult as you are finding and you need to speak to people who specialise in this area. You also need someone who understands how Catholic adoptions were arranged at that time and who are in a position to guide you to where records may be found given the information you have found to date.
It sounds like you have already gone through the due process to obtain a court order to be able to access your father's adoption papers. As you can see from the birth certificate, as with all illegitimate births, there is little information regarding the mother. You do however have additional information regarding where the mother was living at the time of the birth which could help.
Also, with the issue of the middle name of your father, Sancti has found an interesting birth entry on the registers which I believe you have ordered. There is also a possible death showing on Scotlands People for a Margaret J. Robb, other surname Borthwick, born 1927, who died in Glasgow in 1968 which might connect to this Margaret.
The problem you are going to have is how you connect this to your father. There may be something from this Margaret's parents from her birth certificate that might provide some clues....but you are still left with the big questions and how you connect this all back to your father.
There is a useful guide at the National Archives
www.nas.gov.uk/guides/adoptions.asp Now, you have already obtained your father's adoption papers, but there are some helpful contact details to Associations and groups that may be able to help you further. There may be more that you can contact perhaps.
Fingers crossed for you.
Monica
