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I have recently received a copy of my Great Grandfather's (JB) death certificate (June 1927)
The certificate is witnessed by my Grandfather (AJB), who has shown his relationship to my GGF (JB) as being his "Stepson".
Which was news, to say the least.
Which now leaves me with the problem of trying to trace who my Grandfather (AJB) actually was !!!
In summary, my Grandfather AJB was born in 1891, probably in the West Ham / Poplar (possibly Shoreditch) area of E London.
When AJB got married in 1919 he showed JB as being his father.
I have never managed to trace AJB's birth certificate, either under his surname nor that of the maiden name of his adoptive mother.
My best guess is that my Grandfather was adopted at about the turn of the century - something like 1891 to 1910.
Does anybody have any knowledge of -
> How probable is it that this was an "official" adoption (ie what sort of procedues were in place in the late 1800's, early 1900's) and that some sort of record therefore exists.
> Where the best place to start enquiries about the existence of an official record would be.
To make it more complicated, there are no surviving relatives to ask !!!
Thanks
 

My great grandmother is Elizabeth Malyon, who married one James Moles in Bromley St Leonard on Dec 19th 1897. The marriage certificate says she was "21" (ha ha ?) (therefore born 1876) and that her father was George Malyon, labourer, deceased.
I have been unable to trace a birth record for Elizabeth and I cannot trace her whereabouts in the 1881 nor the 1891 census. In 1901 she is recorded living with hubby James Moles in Bromley by Bow and her place of birth is shown as "Bedfordshire" (But I think that's only becaue that is where James was born, in Stotfold).
However, my best guess to date is that she may have been the daughter of George Malyon, b 1839 or 1840, Buckland, Herts, who moved to St George in the East sometime between 1851 and 1861 and took up employment as a coal packer (1861 census) and coal whipper (1871 census). But because I can't locate her birth record, nor find her in the census before 1901 I can't actually prove that she is his daughter.......... and I'm not at all happy about having no proof !!
The problem is made worse by my finding at least 16 variants of the spelling of the surname Malyon (Mallion, Malyun, Mallyan, Malyan and Malson are but a few).
I am starting to feel as if I'm completely wasting my time if I go on on researching this branch of my family.  Any advice about where I might go from here would be really appreciated - even if its "just give up now, before you go mad"........