adoptions

[suzard]

Really it has to be your step mum who looks for her sibling  As you are not a blood relation you will find it difficult to get any information

If the adoption register is still the same as when I looked at it ( 30 years ago ) the information it gives is the new name of the child and the quarter the adoption went to court
So it is not as simple as looking for an adoption on or near the date of birth - there isn't really such a thing as "adopted at birth" - but it should be "placed for adoption at birth" The child would/ may be  placed with foster parents or even the possible adoptive parents or may have been placed elsewhere for at least 6 weeks -time is usually given for the birth mother to be sure of what she is doing or to change her mind and then a court date has to be set -so the actual adoption could be quite some months after the birth date.

If you look at the birth reg and a mark or pencilled note has been put against the record it often indicates that a search has been done - which would be done for the adoption.

Are you certain the child was legally adopted - we have 2 in our family (both b 1940's) who were just given to a childless couple

What we did in our quest to find an adopted family member was to go to the social services at the head office in the county where they were adopted and ask to put a letter on file in case anyone tried to find our family -which they did quite happily
We also went to the adoption agency which handled the adoption (C of E) and had details put on record there .
30 years ago the adiopted children's records were  held at fareham and we managed to get an address and wishes contact on there
We also went to St Catherine's House in London where birth certs were kept at that time and also the adopted childrens register .
All of this of course was to enable our family member to be easily found should the adopted person be trying to make contact

After a few months  links were made  and the people involved are still in close contact after 31 years

I know the systems have changed with the advent of the internet etc - but you may find some ideas from the "old" method

Suz

[dawnsh]

Hi Suz

Thanks for posting.

Sadly the sytem has changed: the books are no longer available to look at as the FRC (previously St Catherines House) has closed.

The adoption index is now on microfilm but contains the years 1927-1946, 1947-1951 and yearly thereafter. They are compiled by name but also year of adoption so someone born in 1945 could be in the 2nd set or any year after that if they weren't adopted as a baby.

See my reply #3 for placing names on contact registers.

I'm sorry to say but without that later name progress can't be made unless the person you are looking for has decided to trace her birth family. She may not even know she was adopted.

[kayla0609]

Thank you all for your help,as far as she knew there was a couple waiting to adopt when she was born.A s what we have read about St. Margarets nursing home in Hackney nothing would surprise us.

[kayla0609]

name has been added to contact registers.

[dawnsh]

You never know, if she knows she has been adopted she might google her name and date of birth and find this topic

[kayla0609]

can but hope .