Genealogy Chat

I've got sort of an idea of who I'm looking for, but when I approached the registrar, she said the entry did not have an address on the birth certificate so how can I be sure it is the entry that I'm looking for?
I'm looking for my adopted halfbrother, here's how it is:
I found an entry in 1960, the surnames matched but the mothers sort of did with the middle name being the same as the mothers first name, but the mother was under 15 at the time of the birth and the name on the certificate is the same as the 15 year olds mother, the entry I was told is also Adopted ....coincidence or do you think it's him?

When you say you approached the Registrar, do you mean that you just spoke to one. If you know the names, there is no reason why you should not send for a copy of the birth certificate. It seems odd that a Registrar would tell you there was no address.

If the mother was only fifteen at the time she was under the age of consent for sex. In fact if she gave birth at fifteen, she probably conceived at fourteen. Technically the boy/man concerned would therefore have been likely to have been prosecuted for having sex with a minor. Prosecutions however were fairly rare as families did not wish their daughter's problems to be public property.
What frequently happened was that the birth would have been registered by her parent, and the baby passed off as belonging to mother, who was of course actually grandmother. Sometimes the baby would be kept and brought up with granny as mother, or an adoption would then go ahead with grandmother signing papers etc.
You have to try to think yourself into the mindset of the time. 1960 was really before the 'swinging' sixties started. Fifteen year olds then, had been born just at the end of the war. The parents of children that age were not anything like as open minded and liberated as now. Often people find out that the person they thought was their much older sister, is in fact their mother, registration having been done the same way as outlined above.
Anyway, getting a copy of the birth cert. would be a good way forward. Also look on the thread on Genes for 'Adoption ,Hints and Hugs for Adoptees .... run by Baccardi, Ice no slice. This is the biggest thread for adoptees and those looking for siblings etc. There are lots of help and advice on that thread.
Good luck
Eileen
(birth name)

Thanks Eileen...I think it's him...but not sure...it does have the grandmothers name on the original birth certificate, told to me by my other adopted brother..so I'm going to go with that and send for it.
Many Thanks...you've cleard things up for me there!

If you don't know the exact date of birth, I don't think you can get a birth certificate from less than 50 years ago. I may be wrong but I don't think you can.

Kath. x