Genealogy Chat

Good morning,

I would be really interested to hear forum members' thoughts and ideas on a scenario I have been presented with following a friend's request for me to help research her paternal ancestry.

My friend was brought up by her parents in the 1940s/1950s, but when she was 8 or 9 years old she recalls looking in a cupboard when her mother was not in the house and found her birth certificate and a photo of a man in uniform. She said that the name of the father given was not the name of the man bringing her up. She spoke to her mother about it who confirmed that the man on the certificate was her biological father as she had only married her husband a couple of years after my friend was born. Nothing more was said at the time but some years later when my friend went to look for the birth certificate again, it had vanised along with the photo.

My friend's mother died a few years ago and so she decided she would like to look into her father's family. She never applied for her birth certificate so of course it was the first thing that I did. I found the index references etc and purchased the certificate from the GRO and it arrived yesterday. I know that the certificate is the correct one as it has the right birth date, full and middle names of both my friend and her mother, the correct residence at birthetc and yet there is no name for father - simply slashed through as father unknown.

Is it possible that the birth certificate my friend saw all those years ago just had the handwritten name of her father on it (perhaps written in by her mother) or maybe it was some other document that she had seen? The fact that my friend's mother had confirmed that her biological father was this particular man makes it more confusing. Without a name on the certificate I cannot help her trace her paternal line which is so frustrating.

Any ideas or thoughts would be very welcome.

Many thanks.

Unless your friend can recall the name she 'saw' or was given, the trail ends.

Even if she can remember the name, unless it was extremely unusual, tracing the man would be very difficult, to say the least

Presumably she was born during WW2, so the man could be of any of a number of nationalities.

Would she have been baptised? If so the parish record might have something in it.

If you search freeBMD using the same year, quarter, volume and page number then the results for that district might show her registered with an alternate surname, which your friend might recognise.

Thank you Reggie and KenSE for your responses.
My friend can remember the name on the birth certificate but over the years she has done the odd bit of research but I think it's more assumptions that she has followed not hard evidence which as you know is not enough. Yes, she was born in 1944 so you are absolutely right the father could be of any nationality.
I have checked freeBMD as I know the year, quarter etc but she is not there. The surname she took was that of her mother's unmarried name and kept that until she herself married. Baptism records are a good idea (|I should have thought of that!) and I will be visiting the RO next week so will have a look to see if I can find anything else via that route.
Thank you both again for your quick responses :-)

If the mother and father are not married, the father can only be named on a b.cert with the permission of both of them. This is usually accomplished by both parties attending the registration together, but can be done by the father filling out a special form. In the absence of this, the birth will be indexed by the GRO in the mother's name only, rather than both surnames as would otherwise be the case.

On a technical note, a child's legal name is whatever the parent(s) say it is. The name on a b.cert hasn't really got much to do with it, as all that is legally necessary under Englsh common law to change a name is that one should start using the new name, and that there should be no fraudulent intent.

Thank you for your comments - its given me some food for thought.

A friend of mine has a similar problem. She was born before her mother married. Her mother subsequently married a different man & she & the new husband had to legally adopt my friend.
Maybe that´s what happened in this case. Might be worth your friend trying to find out if she was legally adopted by the couple after they married.