Genealogy Chat

I hate to put a dampner on this topic, but just to let people know. The law has changed in that the Electoral Registers can no longer be freely searched in your local library!! They are now held by the local council (or at least should be).The council will not allow anyone to freely look at the registers either! The reason is is that someone was found through the e/r's and threatened the local authority with legal action. I would advise anyone thinking of going to a library to look at e/r's, to ring them first (if they're abit slack on the law you might be lucky), but as said, in theory, they should not be held there now. It's a shame, because I am looking for someone from aged 18 and tried this method a few months ago,alas no luck!!

Nudging for someone to see

Thanks Derek and thanks very much for your very useful info on this site about the Electoral Roll. I hope it may help other searchers who have already been searching for a very long time. Cheers.

my hat goe`s off to you christine,i know that was a pain staking search you did on the electoral roles. best wishes christine, and i hope 2007 is a rewarding one. derek

Hi there More recent Electoral Rolls can be found in local librarys and older ones in Record Centres. The library can usually advise. If you have an idea of the area the person was adopted in and are prepared to take a chance they stayed in the same area (as my sister did) up until the year they were eligible to vote, you can try the electoral rolls. As explained in my first message the date of birth is entered in the electoral roll in the year the person first votes. The original birth name will not be listed in the electoral roll of course so what you need to do is look down all the names and see if you can find any with the correct birth date. If you find some then you have to work backwards and see if a birth entry exists in Ancestry for example. If you get to that stage and need help come back to the board for advice. Cheers and good luck.

hi christine great tip but im not sure where to start how do you access electoral roll i have my sisters original name and date of birth

Excellent tip, Thank you.

nudge for keith

Ann Only the adopted person can apply for their own adoption records and even then if there is something in it that the Social Worker deems inappropiate, the information may be withheld in other words... Censored. I've read about people buying up whole blocks of adoption certificates costing a lot of money. My brother and I bought 2 batches of 14 & 9 before we found him in the 2nd batch. Cheers Gerry

Hi Ann Anyone can apply for an adoption cert. If you go along to FRC and spot the name you are looking for in Adopted Childrens Index you can apply for it there and then by filling in a form and they send it on. There is also a form on the GRO website to apply for an adoption cert but you need adoptive name of course. There are no clues as to birth name on it. I applied for my cousins Adoption cert through GRO website some months ago as I originally thought she might have been my sister as she was born in the same year. The form does ask for adoptive parents names if you have them but I don't think it's essential. Cheers, Chris

Wow Christine Wonderful story, it just shows what you can do with patience, time + dogged determination! LOL. Just one thing, I was under the impression that only the adopted child could apply for an adoption cert. am I wrong? Regards Ann

Thanks Hazel and to all. Will get back to you when I try to make contact with my new found sister. It will be interesting as I'm not looking for an emotional get together as such, just would be nice to know that we know of each other, if you know what I mean. Thought I'd get into the New Year before I did it, as don't want to give someone a shock over Xmas period.

Hi Gerry, Unfortunately, my dad died 12 years ago, just as he was 'coming out' about being adopted - we, his children, knew about it - but didn't let on to him!! He had been cagy because of being illegitimate. His mother gave some story about being married to my dad's 'father', and, when he was killed, she went to get her widow's pension, only to find out he was already married!! Dad only ever had a short birth certificate, which I only glimpsed once. I will try to get a copy - never thought about that having any details on it. Thanks for your help Gerry and Christine. maggie

Hi everybody... great thread. Hi Maggie Adoptions cannot be registered in the births because they are not a birth. To solve your mystery I suggest that you get your father's birth certificate, it will most likely state in the outer column 'Adopted' if he is as birth certificates have to be amended by law after an adoption order has been granted in a court. Also, you have enough information to fill out an application form for his adoption certificate... you can do it on the GRO website. Does your father remember going to court? I've read of older children attending their adoption procedures. Sometimes single mothers changed their names in order to appear married and to protect the child from the stigma of illegitimacy. The name on my birth certificate is not my mother's true surname. Names changes didn't have to be official, anyone can change their name to anything they like provided it's not for illegal purposes. Good luck with your search. Let us know how you go. Cheers Gerry

Christine, i wish you all the luck in the world in contacting your sister. my husband and i are also trying to find his half brother like Stella we are in contact with social services adoption-team as of yet wev'e had no luck in finding him, social services have 1 last thing to do and then we will know one way or the other . you see we dont even know whether he was adopted or not, or given away , i have his birth cert which has his birth name and where he was born . time is not on our side as he would be 69yrs old now but were keeping our fingers crossed hazelx

Hi Jackie I'm afraid I don't think that the altered record number for your son's birth entry is likely to be connected with the Adopted Children's Index record. I can't be certain of course because who is to say that the entry clerk didn't make a 'clanger'. I know other people on this site have asked the same question and I don't think anyone has been able identify an adopted person through an altered reference on BMD. There is usually a logical reason for it. My personal ref number on Adopted Children's Index is a five digit number followed by a three digit number but these may have changed over the years of course. You can of course, visit FRC and look through the pages of names, lots, for the year in question to see if you can match the number to a name. Regards, Christine

hi Christine , I have just read your article, on looking for adopted persons. My son was adopted, and looking at the Bmd record the vol and number is crossed and another number along side it , is this the adoption index number .If it is am Iable to use this to search regards Jackie

I hadn't thought of his adopted father being his real father!! He was also 20 years older than my gran, and was married with children, He was the best friend of the man my dad thought was his father. Dad's adopted father was a widower when they married - less than 3 months after the man my father called 'dad' was killed in the war. I suspect a certain subterfuge here LOL Oooh crikey - that could stir up a hornets nest!!!!! maggie

Maggie, that's bad luck about the missing page. I would have thought that the Registrar would still have an entry in the Adopted Children's register though (that's the register not open to the general public) It should still be possible to get a copy of the Adoption Cert even if the page is actually missing in the Index. Might be worth a letter to the Registrar at GRO. It's very odd that there is an entry in manuscript in BMD for an adopted person. Just a thought, could it be that when your father's 'father' was killed in the war, the mother reregistered him under his true father's name hence the manuscript entry ?. It's confusing isn't it.

What an inspirational story, a bit similar to mine. I had no idea that there were actually 7 of us altogether (siblings, some full some half) 2 of these were Adopted. It took me 10 months to figure out what, where and who to go to, to get information from!!! I have found one of my Adopted Brothers myself by searching BMD Indexes and marriage indexes, because he was Adopted to family - he was traceable, so I got his Adopted name by tracing the family members marriage, which then gave me his Adopted Surname. For some reason I typed his name in Bt online and up came his phone number and address. I haven't contacted him yet because I think it's more responsible and respectful to go through the proper channels. I have been told not to contact him directly by Family Placement and to do it through my local Social Services - Adoption Team 'intermediary services'. Good Luck to all who are searching, I have two more Brothers to find now. Hope 2007 will be a good year to all who are searching. Best wishes - Stella X