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Hi,
My Grandad was adopted and since his death, I have been investigating and have found that he had a brother, Leo J Williams (Leo had a different Father). I have the birth certificate of both Leo and my Grandad. On my Grandads birth certificate it says "adopted", he was born in 1928. Leo was born a little earlier (in 1921) and there is no indication of an adoption on the certificate.

However, I have been attempting to find records of Leo and cannot find anything. As far as I am aware, adoptions weren't recorded properly until 1928, so am thinking maybe he was also adopted and that it just wasn't noted on the certificate. I was just wondering if there is any way that I could find out if he was adopted, and then if there would be any way to find out if his name was changed etc.

I have listed the details of Leos birth below:

Name:   Leo J Williams
Registration Date:   1921
Registration district:   Christchurch
Inferred County:   Hampshire
Re-registration Year:   1921
Mother's Maiden Name:   Ambrose
Volume Number:   2b
Page Number:   1172

There is also a sister, Ninette, who had the same father as Leo. I also had difficulty finding records on her, but ancestryDNA has given me a lot of information on her, but the person on ancestry who gave me the information on Ninette has no knowledge of Leo. If anyone has any ideas of how I could find Leo, I'd appreciate the help. Thanks in advance

Hi,
I have been researching my family history for about a month now. My grandfather (Robert G Williams) is the biological son of "Sybil Ambrose", born in Bournemouth, 1928.

My Grandad was adopted at 10 months old I believe and we only found this out after his death in 2016, so had only known his adopted name, and always hit brick walls upon trying to expand the family tree.

About a month ago, my sister did a DNA test with ancestry. It came back and suggested that one of our matches was a second cousin. Most of our 'recent' family history is known to us, except on my grandfather's side, so we began the search. We have found that there was another child "Ninette Williams" Born to mother Ambrose in 1922 (Southampton) and this seems to be where the DNA connection comes in. (Also, upon doing a blind search for Williams children with mother Ambrose I have found two other children, Roderick A Williams born in 1917 Southampton, and Leo J Williams Born in 1921 Christchurch). These second two children could be completely irrelevant, but they were born in close proximity so they could be connected.

As I said, We are quite confident that Ninette is my Grandfather's sister due to the DNA connection. The problem comes in when looking for the father. I have tried looking for marriage records between Sybil Ambrose and a Williams and had no luck. It does get a little more complicated, we have attempted to find Sybil Ambrose's birth and found a 1901 Sussex and 1911 Hampshire census. In the 1901 Census, Sybil is living with a Lipscombe Family, noted as "Sybil Huntly the niece of a Joseph Lipscombe", then in 1911 living with the Now Widowed Margaret Lipscombe, she is noted as "Sybil Ambrose Grandchild of Margaret Lipscombe" Alongside her Brother "Cyril Ambrose". Ambrose, it seems, is the name she took forward from this point, until she took the name Williams (which, I think, was the name she died with, in Bournemouth 1933).

The whole name situation is getting a bit confusing, We found that Sybil's Father was called "George Ansell" and we believe the mother to be "Ethel Lipscombe" who was also in the household in 1901. We are quite confident that this is correct as we have a DNA connection with the Ansell family, and we have been told that George Ansell was an alcoholic who left his family, I am assuming that the name lack of "Ansell" in the name is due to the fact that He was already married, It would also explain the change from niece to granddaughter on the census.

Now, going back to the point. I still cannot find a marriage between a Williams and a Ambrose, An Ansell, Lipscombe or a Huntly, all being names that Sybil has taken over the years. One obvious explanation is that they were not married, but I still cannot find any connection at all between a Sybil and Williams. Perhaps Williams was not even the name of the father, but at this point, I am completely lost.

I have attempted to find connections between all of the children and their father but have found no leads. I know it is rather complicated, but I would appreciate greatly If anyone could think of other places to look.