Genealogy Chat

My mother[Cindy Strong] was taken into care with all of her brothers and sisters, there was about 8 of them that she has vague memories of, she is not sure of the exact number of siblings as she was only 5 when she was taken away. Her mothers name was Gladys Strong who we know has now passed, also a sister called Irene who has now passed. a sister Diane who she is still in contact with, and another sister Carol who was in a mental hospital the last we knew of her. As for the rest of the family, we are very much lost. If this sounds like a familiar family to you or you think you might be able to help please let me know. My mother was born in Erith, Kent but moved to Southend-On-Sea.

Jo-anne I don't know an awful lot about this, but I do know that if you contact the Social Services area who dealt with them you can speak to someone who can look at their file. They may not be able to give you any information at all but they will be able to give you details of how you can leave a letter on the persons file. This means that if they ever enquire about their birth family etc, they will be given your letter. Think how nice it would be for them to know that they have family who are interested in them. We have been fortunate that the social services departments we have spoken to during our search for my husbands birth family have been very helpful. I don't think they go out of their way to prevent family reunions but obviously they are bound by laws etc. Give it a go, it's worth a try. You never know they may have already had a note made on their files that they would like to have contact with birth relatives. Good Luck Eleanor

I think they were adopted, probably about 15/16 years ago, their mother and father died but as their parents weren't married i'm not 100% sure of their surname, and they may have taken on an adoptive surname...

If it was at the time of the 1901 census try typing in "institutions" on the find panel and then type in Industrial Schools, or orphanages etc. I found one of mine like this. In the 1891 type in just the name on the search as they are listed with the others. After this time I dont think you will get anything as it will probably be under the privacy act. Regards Christina

Were they adopted? What years are we talking about? I'm not an expert on this, but I think you have to be next-of-kin to get hold of any information.

If a relative was taken into care as a child is there somewhere I can go and get info on them, i.e. will Social Services give me any info?