Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (68 page)

3.
  
The records of quarter sessions and church courts for charges of immorality against the parents are also worth searching
.

4.
  
The repositories of ecclesiastical courts in England are described in D. M. Owen's
Records of the Established Church in England
and the types of records these courts produced are explained in
Sin, Sex and Probate: Ecclesiastical Courts, Officials and Records
by C. Chapman, and
Church Court Records: An Introduction for Family and Local Historians
by A. Tarver
.

If you suspect your illegitimate predecessor was the product of an aristocratic love affair, and you have a notion as to the identity of the father, then look for circumstantial evidence that might place your well-connected would-be ancestor in the right place at the time of the conception and birth of the child. The movements of the well-to-do classes were chronicled in contemporary newspapers and journals, and biographies can give you more clues about their whereabouts at certain times. Hopefully you will be more successful in finding the answers you want than John Hurt was when he tried to prove that his great-grandmother, Emma Stafford, was the daughter of the Marquess of Sligo. By comparing the date his great-grandmother was born with an extended Sligo family tree John found that the dates did not work for Emma to have been conceived by the Marquess.

Always try to find the will of the person you believe to have sired your ancestor because they may have provided for them given that legally an illegitimate child had no automatic right to their parents' legacy. The National Archives holds records concerning the transferral of property belonging to illegitimate people who died intestate. Usually their property would go to the Crown, but petitions can be found in series T 4 from 1680 to 1819 from next of kin requesting that letters of administration be granted to them instead. TS 17 contains papers relating to the administration of estate papers for people who died without leaving a lawful heir between 1698 and 1981. Estate records found in local record offices and private repositories may also list regular payments made to the mother of the child for maintenance.

The majority of adoptions prior to the 1930s were arranged privately, either by the child's mother or family, or by a charitable organization. In this type of set-up the adoptive family would act as foster parents and the child may or may not have taken a new name, but there was no legal requirement to change the child's name officially even if they became known by a different surname. This highlights the main
struggle with researching an adoption at any point in time: knowing what name to look for in the records. Some adopted children kept the name they were registered with at birth, but most will have taken their adoptive parents' surname and some will have been given a new first name by their adoptive parents, though this is more likely if they were adopted at a very young age. If the child's first name was changed within 12 months of the original birth registration the entry should be indexed under both names, as long as the child was not baptized with the name originally entered on the civil register.

Anyone researching an adoption arranged through the courts will hit many brick walls if they are not the adopted person or are not directly related to the adoptee. If you are researching the adoption of a distant relative, or a relative who has died, it is worth trying to access the resources described in this section even if the official line is that they are only available to the adoptee to find out more about their origins. Speak to the General Register Office and the relevant adoption departments, explaining your relationship to the adoptee and how much information you know about them already to find out what type of records they can provide you with. Bear in mind that the privacy of the adopted person will always be prioritized over a relative's interest in their family history
.

Adoption registers for adoptions arranged through the courts with the aid of adoption agencies and charitable organizations exist from 1927 for England and Wales, from 1931 for Scotland and Northern Ireland and from 1953 for the Republic of Ireland. For most cases it is possible to order a copy of the adoption certificate if you can provide the adoptee's adoptive name and date of birth. The certificate will tell you the names of the child's adoptive parents and the court in which the adoption was granted. Alternatively you can order the original birth certificate if you know the child's original name and date of birth, which should provide you with the natural mother's name and possibly the father's name if it was recorded, as well as the place and time of birth.

In order to protect the identity of the adopted person it is not possible to cross-reference the information given in the original birth indexes with that given in the adoption registers. Therefore, while an entry in the birth registers may note that a child was adopted, it will not give the child's adoptive name, and the adoption registers will only give the child's adoptive name and date of birth, but not their place of birth or original name. You are therefore required to know a certain amount about the child before you commence a search. If you know what the child was called before they were adopted you should be able to order their birth certificate in the normal manner and use the information on that to work backwards. However, if you think they were adopted but do not know the name they were adopted under you will struggle to find out anything about their later life. Equally, if you know the person's adoptive name you may be able to order their adoption certificate and find out a little about their adoptive parents, but without knowing the child's birth name or the names of their natural parents you will probably not be able to find out about their origins.

If you are conducting a search for your own adoption records or on behalf of a relative who has given you permission to find their adoption records, there are three main sources of information. The General Register Office will hold the original birth certificate and the Adopted Children Register. If the adoption was arranged through an agency or organization then they should have records on the case, and court records should contain records of the adoption proceedings.

Official adoptions

Nicky Campbell had known he was adopted, and decided to explain the background involved when looking for natural parents in his episode of
Who Do You Think You Are? –
even though he decided to investigate the background of his adoptive parents during the show
.

Nicky had been given up for adoption when only five days old, but only decided to search for his biological family in later life once he was 30. He vividly described how emotionally draining the process was, and how it opened up issues with both his adoptive and natural family concerning identity, changes to existing relationships and long-buried feelings that rose to the surface once again
.

Nicky Campbell followed the steps many others have taken, namely to find out as much information as possible from his adoptive parents, and then pursuing a paper trail – applying for original birth details, searching for a birth certificate, and finding information about his adoption file
.

The Adoption, Search & Reunion website was set up by the British Association for Adoption and Fostering to help those researching an adoption that took place in the UK, as well as anyone who is thinking about searching for and making contact with birth and adopted relatives. The website contains a database to aid researchers in locating the repositories of adoption records which can be searched by the name of a home (such as a maternity home, mother and baby centre or women's shelter that might be given on the birth certificate), the name of an organization or local authority involved in the birth or adoption, the name of a member of staff who worked in the home or for the organization (perhaps they were the informant who registered the child's birth), as well as by place name. You can access the Locating Adoption Records database from www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk/search.

The General Register Office for England and Wales has an Adopted Children Register, a register of all the adoptions granted by courts in England and Wales since 1927. When an entry is made in the register the child's original birth entry should be marked ‘adopted' and the adopted child should use their adoption certificate in place of their birth certificate for legal and administrative purposes. The Adopted Children Register is no longer open for the public to search, but if you can provide the GRO with the adoptive name of the child and their date of birth a copy of their adoption certificate showing the names of their adoptive parents may be issued. Send your application to

The General Register Office

Adoptions Section, Room C202

Trafalgar Road

Birkdale

Southport PR8 2HH

If you know the name the child was registered with at birth before the adoption you should be able to locate their birth certificate using the
ordinary civil registration indexes. If you are trying to find out about the circumstances of your own adoption and do not know anything about your natural parents, the GRO's adoption service should be able to provide you with your original birth certificate. Before November 1975 many parents were told that the adopted child would not be able to find out their original name or the names of their natural parents. Changes in legislation that took place with effect from 12 November 1975 meant that it would be easier for adopted children to find out about their origins once they reached 18 years of age. Therefore, children who were adopted prior to November 1975 and wish to find out about their natural parents are required to meet with an adoption advisor before information about their original birth entry will be released. There is more information about the adoption service on the GRO website at www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/adoptions.

Children adopted in Scotland after 1931 can apply for information about their original birth entry by writing to

The Adoption Unit

New Register House

3 West Register Street

Edinburgh EH1 3YT

Provide details of their adoptive name, date of birth and full postal address. A copy of the adoption certificate can also be requested by writing to this address. The General Register Office for Scotland has advice about tracing adoption records on its website at www.groscotland.gov.uk/regscot/adoption.html.

Birthlink is a charitable organization set up by the Family Care Adoption Society in Edinburgh to provide support to adopted people and their relatives in Scotland. The organization can help adopted people to trace birth relatives and also gives advice on locating records concerning the adoption. The organization has a website at www.birthlink.org.uk detailing their services, or alternatively you can speak to a member of staff by telephoning 0131 225 6441, or write to them at

Birthlink

21 Castle Street

Edinburgh EH2 3DN

When the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act was passed in 1930, adoptions could be arranged by charitable organizations or local
authorities, and then be ratified in a civil court, usually a local sheriff court, although a very small number are passed in the Court of Sessions in Edinburgh. The process papers generated by these adoptions remain with the local courthouse for up to 25 years, after which time they are passed to the National Archives of Scotland where they are held in the Legal Search Room, but are subject to a closure period of 100 years. The only circumstances under which this rule may be relaxed are if the adopted person is over 16 years old and wishes to read them, or a person authorized in writing by the adopted person applies to see them, and in both cases proof of the adopted person's birth and identity are required. To locate the correct legal records the NAS needs to be notified in advance of your visit of the adopted person's birth name, the date they were adopted and the court that dealt with the adoption. This information can be obtained from the General Register Office for Scotland.

‘If you are trying to find out about your own adoption, the GRO's adoption service will be able to give you your original birth certificate.'

The adoption process papers vary in content from case to case, but should contain a copy of the child's original birth certificate, an official report to the court at the time of the adoption, a petition by the adopting parents, the consent of the birth mother and sometimes the birth father, the name of any adoption agency involved, and confirmation from the court that the adoption may proceed. The papers will not always give background information explaining why the birth parents wanted to give the child up for adoption; however, they may reveal distressing information about the circumstances. The NAS has produced an online guide to adoption records in Scotland found at www.nas.gov.uk/guides/adoptions.asp.

There is a separate Adopted Children Register for Northern Ireland covering adoptions since 1931, and adopted people can apply to the GRO for Northern Ireland for a copy of their original birth certificate. The General Register Office for Northern Ireland has an adoption section on its website at www.groni.gov.uk where there is information about how adopted people can go about tracing their origins. Applications for copies of original birth certificates or adoption certificates should be sent to

The Registrar General

Oxford House

49–55 Chichester Street

Belfast BT1 4HL

Legal adoption in the Republic of Ireland did not begin until 1953. People researching adoptions in Ireland since the 1952 Adoption Act should contact the Adoption Board to seek advice by telephoning +353 (0)1 230 9300 or writing to

Shelbourne House

Shelbourne Road