Lost Records?

[chris23005]

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.

[KGarrad]

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.

[chris23005]

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....

[Little Nell]

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

.

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

[chris23005]

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.

[LizzieW]

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.

[chris23005]

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!

[Ruskie]

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?

[aghadowey]

I am not really sure where to post this as it covers England, Scotland and Ireland!
...
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.