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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: Mariposaloca on Friday 06 April 18 11:27 BST (UK)
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hi all
My nana recently passed away and this is a complex and sad case im trying to decipher.
My nana gave birth to 3 children in the 50's with her first husband, John. after the 3rd child was born my nana and John split up. He took the eldest girl but the 2 younger ones went to live with my nana. She found love again and struggled to feed the 2 kids with her not working and her new guy in the armed forces, money was tight. Her first husband never helped her with any funds. ONe day she went to his asnd demanded he help feed the kids who were getting thin. The mother in law dragged the kids inside and the ex went out to beat my nana. The front door closed and my nana never saw the kids again until years after.
Somehow, Johns Mother Mary (who hated my nana) got her sent away for 6 months for Neglect which is why she never saw her kids again. My nana never stopped searching and her Mother in law was quite high up in the system and knew people. They went into hiding and eventually, from what we found out, the children all go taken off of John and his mother and put into a care home in the Quarriers home in Bridge Of Weir Scotland in the mid 50's.
Basically when they were in their teens, they found nana and said they were told nana was dead. They didn't stay close and all drifted apart as nana had her new family and these kids were angry at my nana they believed she let them go).
50 years on, i get a call from a guy saying he is nanas son and he found my tree on Genes Reunited. he visits a few times in the last 7 years (less than a handful). Nana was diagnosed with dementia and with my dad poorly and aunt living in Scotland, i started caring for her. i got her into a residential home and visited all the time to care for her needs. She broke her neck in a fall and ended up in hospital for 7 weeks before dying of starvation! (dementia caused her to depress her self into not eating). not one of the kids from her earlier life visited.
When nana died, she didn't have much left as all her funds paid for her living costs in the home. what she did have left was under 500 pound and she expressed this was to go to an animal charity which my aunt and dad agreed. Until in comes the children from before! the vultures!
The point of this story is im looking into whether these children were actually still my nanas kids by law. They were taken from their parents and placed into an orphan home so somewhere down the line my nanas rights and their rights must've been relinquished?
How do i find out if they have rights to claim this measly £500!? I want to know if my nana was legally still bound to them.
Appreciate any advice - no judgements please. life was very different back then in Scotland.
Thank you in advance
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As I understand things (I may be wrong) once a child is adopted, they relinquish all inheritance rights to their parents estates.
Scottish Law may be different, of course. But I think I am correct in my thinking.
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This is indeed the case. I need to find out if they were adopted or just kept in care.
How would I do this?
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You will need to apply for official copies of their birth certificates.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/registration/about-registration-in-scotland#adopt
If they have been legally adopted out of their birth names, a copy of a birth cert bought now should show this.
Might I aslo suggest you take legal advice?
If the estate is only worth £500, this will be gobbled up in legal fees and disbursements so there will be no inheritance.
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If she left a will, which then went to probate, there is nothing to worry about?
If there was no will (she died intestate) then it might be a problem.
If the children weren't adopted it's possible they could contest - but that would probably be expensive!
A person's wishes aren't legally binding, unless they are expressed in a will.
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As I understand things (I may be wrong) once a child is adopted, they relinquish all inheritance rights to their parents estates.
Scottish Law may be different, of course. But I think I am correct in my thinking.
You are correct as far as England is concerned. My husband was formally adopted by his mother when she re-married. When his birth father died he was not allowed to inherit.
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If she left a will, which then went to probate, there is nothing to worry about?
As she lived and died in Scotland, it did not go to probate. Probate does not exist in Scots Law so the word is meaningless in Scotland.
The corresponding legal process in Scotland is confirmation.
As I understand it, all the children of a deceased person are entitled to share a third of the estate of that person, or, if the deceased was widowed, to share half of the estate. I think that if the person leaves a will in which a third (or half) of the estate is left to a child of the second family, the other children have no claim. I do not know what happens if she died intestate, or what effect an adoption would have.
If I were you, I would go to the Citizens' Advice Bureau and seek advice from someone qualified in Scots law relating to inheritance.
It might be easier just to divide the £500 by the total number of children and pay out their share to the 3 from the first family - that way you will get something to pass on to the charity of your nan's choice, but if it gets into the hands of lawyers none of you will see any of it.
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I can't help you with your dilemma, However what a very sad story.
:'(
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Sad it is for sure :-\
Why not contact a service such as Citizen Advice who can offer you free specialist legal advice?
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/about-us/get-advice-s/
Monica
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I saw your post on rootschat.com and am one of the children in your post, posted on 6 April 2018.
What went on between my parents and grandmother should never have been put out on the internet.
I could sue you for defamation of character.
We did not seek to find her, ‘in our teens’ SHE looked for US through our fathers mother (Mary Manclark) and found US through her. I was never told she was dead, by ANYONE!
I met her, but felt nothing, for me there was no bond! After communicating for a while, we realised it wasn’t working, so stop it.
By the way, from the replies to your post, we were not ‘adopted’ because our sh*t of a father told the children’s home not to do that, or separate us, then he off to Australia after something, to do with me, was exposed. He couldn’t get much further away from his three kids, could he?
After I returned from living abroad, after many years, I got in contact with my brother, the man who phoned you, he in turn, had found our mother, who after talking on the phone, visited me twice, in London, but I still had no feelings, or any type of bond with her.
My brother, mother and l all separately about what happened with my father, then the gossip started. It was when I heard what was being said, about me, I decided I didn’t need my brother, or my mother in my life, so ostracised both of them, abd that included everyone else in the family.
I know your nan, (my mother), died, but I haven’t contact anyone in the family for years and certainly didn’t want any money from her estate.
I take offence at what you’ve written, in your post, especially about, ‘not one of the kids from her earlier life visited’. I personally, eventually, had nothing to do with anyone in the family, through choice. So why would I WANT to visit after her death, or want anything from her estate.
There is a lot more, from my side, that you don’t know about and how I felt about my mother and if you do want to know it all, from my side, you can contact me on here.
You had no right to put this out on a public domain. Especially when it looks like I was involved, when I wasn’t.
In your post it looks as if I had been in contact with you about wanting my mother’s money. I find this totally offensive and want a public apology, from you, on here, rootschat.com
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Hi Susan
Im sorry 100% that you feel this was to get to you and im sorry you feel i did this in spite of everything that happened. I shall tell you exactly why i did this.
I had Power of attorney for Nana and when she died, Matthew tried to sue me for all nanas money. nana wanted her last savings to go to charity and Matthew wanted to dispute that. He told me that you and Elena wanted your share and i was to give it to him for safe keeping. I attempted to contact you and Elena to inform you of nanas passing and i also tried to look in to your history to see 1: if you were entitled and 2: if you wanted it. Im sorry you thought otherwise. This site was a way for me to get help with searching your childrens homes. Your name was mostly brought up to find more out about Matthew. All in all, i never heard from you, Elena messaged me but her messages never made sense and Matthew finally got told by his solicitors, he has no leg to stand on. Nanas money went to a charity after fighting your brother for a year and im happy, he was offered his share simply because i figured if he was desperate enough to go through all that for £200 then he may as well have it.
i meant no upset by this post and i surely didnt mean to upset or offend you. I did try and contact you, even through someone who is family of yours on Facebook. All i needed to know was, did you want your inheritence or not, as i was sitting on history and i wanted to grieve. As for the storys, its all ive been told so if you can find it in your heart to explain the past, id love to hear it as nana never wanted to talk about it. its snippets of other family members that told me what i found out.
Anyway i hope this apology is enough for you. Im also sorry you never got to meet her in the end. Her dementia made her a nicer better person :)
kind regards Lia
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Thank you Lia.
I’m not on Facebook, or other social media websites.
If you want to make contact I’d rather do it some other way.
I have a mobile phone and an email address, but I don’t want to give these out on this website, or over the internet.
Sue
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Hi Susan
You can contact me on Removed
:) Thank you
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Hi Sue
This is the link to contact Lia via the private message service www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=287634
Works like most email services with an in/out box.
Another way to get there for anyone is just to click on the button under anyone's name on the l/hand side, the button with what looks like a letter on the r/h side.
Hope you both find your way through this all :)
Monica
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Just read this thinking it was going to be a sad story with an even sadder ending. I'm sorry to read about the passing of your Nana / Mother. But i'm very glad that you are both in contact, all be it, not for a happy reason, but even so, i really hope you both get to share some stories/memories with each other :-)
Best wishes to you both x