Scott/Adoption/1919..need help!

[wrighk00]

Below is a copy of the answer I received this morning from the archivist at the Portman Estate which owns this and surrounding properties.  Funnell was the man who had a business on the ground floor and seems to have leased the building later on. 



 

Thank you for your enquiry.  The estate’s records show only the names of lessees, not occupiers or sub-tenants so I regret we cannot be of direct help to you on this.  In 1919 13 New Quebec Street was still subject to a 56 year lease granted in 1870 to Edward S Jones and assigned in 1883 to another member of his family.  A new lease was issued in 1928 to a John Funnell.

 

If you have not already contacted them you would be able to find more details about the occupiers of this property from the City of Westminster Archives Centre, a collection which is fully open to the public.  Their website is www.westminster.gov.uk/archives  The best sources to try would probably be street directories, the St Marylebone rate books and possibly the electoral registers for 1919, all of which you would find there.

 

[Daisy Loo]

Hi Kathy...did any of those certs arrive yet?  Any luck? 

[wrighk00]

Nothing.  I'm getting concerned as my sister-in-law ordered one two weeks after me and she was told she would get it this week.  I'm not sure how to go about contacting them to see.
I also learned that Mona had not realized she was adopted until she was 12 and an older cousin told her.  This seems a bit surprising that she has no memory for something that would have been such a big transition, but not entirely impossible for her to have had memories she had not associated with before the switch.  But that means that there is very little first person record.
Thanks for checking in.

[Daisy Loo]

I have read somewhere that there is a delay in certs, as the volume of ordering is very high. 

Wow, in some ways then, it could mean that she was a happy child, and that parting from her birth mother wasn't too traumatic, if she couldn't remember.  Mind you, how much does one really remember from the age of 3?  So the letters were kept by her new mother, and obviously passed on to her.

I do hope something turns up!  I'll keep checking in though

[wrighk00]

Fern says that she had a very happy childhood. 

[Maddie]

Having only just read this extremely poignant thread I hope you don't mind if I put down my thoughts. My initial reaction on reading the first letter was that it hadn't been written by the mother. I thought perhaps a Governess but then on reading more & seeing the last letter & the signature which looks very much like Mr A T Scott, could it possibly be the father who has given up his little girl. Particularly as she would be going to a loving mother.

Is it possible that he has returned from the Great War to find that his wife has died & he is not able to care for his daughter. Because of the mention of the Ration Book & the fact that the Nurse had lost it it does sound as though the parent wasn't there to supervise.

I'm probably completely wrong about this & I do wish you all the luck in the world & hope you have a happy & successful conclusion.

Best wishes
Maddie

[Abiam2]

This is sad story.  As I was reading it I felt it was a woman who organised 'hidden' adoptions for illegitimate children it doesn't sound like the mother to me.  A baby broker?  Or maybe it could be the father and he would have had to have had a nurse or some such if he was in employment.  And it seems to me she was cared for elswhere.  Also the father would possibly write in that form caring but more restrained than a mother? 
Good luck everyone,
Regards,
Abiam

[wrighk00]

I have received the Mona Dowling birth registration and

[MonicaL]

Certainly sounds intriguing...

Does the mother actually sign the birth register or is it the registrar only with the parent(s) names as informant?

On the issue of signatures and comparing for similarities in writing, I wonder if Annie Teresa's marriage entry which would be signed by her would reveal anything?

Monica