Adoption help please-Sunnyside Maternity Hospital Cheltenham

[Jesper]

I'm trying to help a friend find his birth Mum.Firstly,I apologise for being so vague.This is all we have to go on. David was born June 1951 at the Sunnyside Maternity Hospital Cheltenham.His birth mother was a removed and all that Davids' adoptive Mum could tell him about her was that she was young and from 'oop north.She worked as a chemists assistant in the Pittville Circus Road in the town.
By young,I would assume around her late teens so that's a birth year of around 1933...any help would be greatly appreciated...any budding 'Sherlocks' out there?
Many thanks

^(*) Moderator Comment:
Edited in accordance with RootsChat policy of not publishing details of living people here, or details of people who may still be living. This is to protect all concerned from spam, identity abuse, internet abuse, etc, etc.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.

[dawnsh]

Hi jesper

We have a 'no living people' policy here so her name has been removed as there is every possibility she may still be alive.

If your friend hasn't done so already, he should apply for a copy of his adoption papers so that he knows exactly who his birth mother is.

https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records

I can't find an obvious birth in the index with her surname and maiden surname in the records so there may be another spelling involved or location.

Dawn

[LizzieW]

Hi Jesper - I had a daughter who was adopted and her and her adoptive father found me as follows:

1.  They got her adoption certificate which gave my maiden name
2.  They looked for a marriage for me which they found which gave my father's names, so they got my birth certificate to prove they had the right person.

3.  They looked for any children of the marriage and bought the birth certificate of the youngest which gave them an address.  They wrote to me at that address but, unfortunately, we'd moved, but the people who lived there gave them some clues as to where we'd moved to.  As we'd moved again that was a dead end.

4. After that it was basically just looking through electoral rolls in the library for my husband and I, there were too many as we have fairly common names, so they then looked for one of my sons who has a less common name.  There were only 4.  They looked them up in the 'phone book with the intention of ringing them all.  However, the first one they rang was my son.  They just told him they were doing family history research and wanted to contact me.  My son gave them my address and 'phone number, and my daughter wrote to me.

That was about 8 years ago now.  I've since met my adopted daughter and her adoptive parents quite a few times.

It's always worth a go.

Lizzie

ps.  I know it's suggested that adopted children apply for their adoption records and go via social services and maybe that would be a better thing for your friend to do so that social services can contact his birth mother in case he is a secret.  My adopted daughter was a secret so I didn't tell my husband for a few months, fortunately his response was "Let's go and meet her".

[Jesper]

Lizzie,Thanks so much for your long and thorough reply.David only knows the minimum of details about his birth mother.He was given the surname of the matron who was on the ward when he was born -so that's on his birth certificate.He doesn't even have the same names now,either, having taken his adoptive parents name and the first name they gave him.It really is the most tenuous of links!
We know his Mum's real name (all three names,too!)and that she was from up north...also,she was young so we're looking at David's birth year (1951)less ,say,18 (we know she worked in a chemist so she may well be a tad older than 18)so 1933 'ish'
Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Kind regards and many thanks
Jesper

[dawnsh]

Hi Jesper

I saw the name of the birth mother you posted before it was removed.

I looked at the birth index at freebmd between 1921 (aged 30 in 1951) and 1937 (aged 14 in 1951) and there aren't any that match with being from the north of the country

There are a few marriages in the index after 1951 with her name so if money is no object you apply apply to the GRO for all of them but that still wouldn't help in your search.

I don't think it was usual for matrons to give their surnames to children, I thought this scenario only happened if the authorities didn't know who the mother really was or if the child was a foundling.

You really should suggest that your friend obtains his file, just because he has been told her name what such and such, it may not have been.