RootsChat.Com

Yes we have looked for all of those things. Basically what happened is that my friend did a dna test before christmas which showed up a high match to someone who contacted her. Of course she hadnt started her tree yet so got thown in at the deep end. She knows her birth mother and has her own adoption file in which it states that her mother's father was in merchant navy as engineer and lost at sea the same year as the birth of his child and that mother died in childbirth. (Two adoptions here .... Friend AND her mother were both adopted). DNA contact checked chromosome match and confirmed link on his mothers side and gave a list of family names. So we did a search on all surnames for a death at sea and got a clear match, esp as his middle name and fathers middle name also appear in family tree of contact. The seaman's next of kin was shown as his father (which would be correct as his wife had died in childbirth three months beforehand) and gave an address.

Marriage .... Found a marriage two years previously ..... Only marriage for this name over a two year period ..... He would have been too young to get married before then. Same couple had a boys birth registered to them on same date as my friends birth mother but no sign of a girl. Obviously as we dont know her birth name yet we are searching in the dark. The story about my friends mother being a twin was told to her by her adoptive mother..... But cannot be proved. Of course there is also the possibility that they were not married, but maybe engaged ..... In which case ...... We are back to square one! Is there any way of checking the births and deaths on a particular day?

My friend is actively requesting her birth mothers adoption file but this will take time as her birth mother is still alive. However a new law has come in which allows her to do this especially as she has already met her b mother (who wants no further contact).

So you can see that, although we are fully aware that a paper trail is needed,it is not easy to provide one at present and this has all escalated due to someone contacting about a strong dna match from someone who has only just started!! Its also v difficult for an adopted person to deal with all of this unemotionally ...... Hence the reason I am helping out.

Yes we have already looked for all surname deaths (1940) ..... Currently Also in process of requesting adoption records so that may help too  ..... An unusual scenario .....three generations of adoptions! Thanks for your input.

I am not really sure where to post this as it covers England, Scotland and Ireland!

I am helping a friend try to discover her birth family and with the help of dna we have made a good start. Her birth mother was also adopted and We are pretty sure we have identified her birth parents as the husband was lost at sea and had a very distinctive name so has been easily found. we have also found a marriage for him so know the name of the birth mother. However tragically his wife gave birth two years later .... Possibly to twins ..... And died in childbirth. Her husband was drowned at sea shortly afterwards. The rumour goes that the family couldnt cope with bringing up two babies, so they kept one and had the other, a girl, adopted. Now the problem starts. We can find a birth for a boy in the right quarter and the right year (and again a distinctive name) BUT NOT RECORDS which register the other birth or the mothers death. This is probably in Hammersmith, London, but the mother was Irish and the father Scottish!! The adoption was arranged by an adoption society in London so guessing it should have been registered there.

So ...... Where do we look next? Were a lot of records destroyed in that area during the blitz? Its all stopped just as we got started!!  any suggestions gratefully received.

I have been trawling through old posts and spotted a few where people are baffled by their ethnicity results as they don't identify with, for example, a European connection.

I thought I would just share my scenario in the hope that it might help others. Many years ago an elderly Aunt threw out in conversation "Well of course you know that we have a lapsed Jewess in the family don't you?" .... I remember feeling quite shocked at the time, it seemed like a racist comment ........ and I didnt give it much more thought. However it got me wondering - I am fair skinned (and freckly) and take after my father in complexion. My mother had a more olive skin, and dark hair and so did her brother. We always thought that they resembled her father who had similar colouring. Granny was grey haired and pale skinned so we didnt put her into the equation as we only had black and white photos and couldnt see what here colouring was.

AFter a while I started exploring my mother's family tree in more detail..... and discovered that her mother's father had married Caroline Leah Rubey ........ that started ringing bells - Leah is a Jewish name, and so is Rubey ...... further investigation revealed that it was SHE who had married outside of her Jewish faith and I eventually discovered other family trees which listed her mother's family tree and it seemed to go back to Spain/Italy and even Morocco. How could I be sure? I left it for years, but had my DNA tested just before Christmas. Back came the results ..... I am 40 percent British, 23 per cent Irish (still looking for that link!) and 32 per cent European West - the map showed exactly the right area in the paper trail, so for me it has confirmed that I do actually have the right person in my tree. And then I realised ...... what I thought was a racist remark by my Aunt wasnt racist at all...... she was much older than my Mum and had apparently paid for her to be evacuated early on in the war..... because of course they all had Jewish blood ...... and she was downright scared. Makes so much sense now.

Now I just have to unravel the Irish connection - my father always thought there was one but I cannot find it - interesting though that when I visited Dublin about 18 months ago the man next to me in the theatre asked which part of Ireland I came from, and would not have it that I was English!! He just kept saying "Are you sure you are not Irish?" Lol! Isnt this exciting?