Adoptions

[majm]

I have made slight modifications to my post  # 323    (hopefully to make it clearer)

And, I have just checked NSW BDM online index.   None of the other children fostered by my grandparents seem to have two different registration numbers.  One was also apprenticed in a trade.  Perhaps Grandfather did not need to prove he had authority to sign that set of papers. 

JM

[Jang]

Thanks for the very clear explanation. In the case of the other children, would the original birth certificate have remained without amendement ie no mention of foster parents?

Jan

[majm]

I have just been on phone to one of these delightful aunties,  born 1919.   She married using her birth surname and written permission of my Grandfather, he was recorded as 'foster father' on the NSW BDM mc.     She needed her local federal MP to sort out an interfering public servant "cross questioning" her about her ID paperwork when she was widowed several years ago.  She is happy to answer any questions if it helps anyone's family history -  ask away !    

JM

[majm]

   Her birth certificate makes NO mention of her foster family at all.  This is because her birth was registered before  (months before) she was placed with my grandparents.     

I will phone her brother who was a senior officer NSW BDM and check other options 



JM

[Jang]

Thanks again, hope you don't mind me asking more questions.

So, if the birth was only registered once, and there's no record of a marriage or death in the birth name, then it's likely her name was changed by her new parents. Would a new BC be issued in her new name?

I just noticed you mentioned the fostering via a Lodge arrangement - would records exist of such an arrangement?

Jan

[majm]

Lodges kept their own records, different lodges had different ways of keeping records, and it depended also on who was the then current person responsible for the record keeping.

Formal Adoptions did not commence in NSW until December 1923, so there was no formal authority for the NSW Supreme Court to become involved in the (fostering) process

Any person could and can still become known by a name that has no bearing on the name on their birth certificate.  It is not compulsory for a formal deed poll to be arranged.  It certainly was not even a usual process back before WWII.    When a child started school, it may have been a decision by a class teacher to use the surname of the new parents for that child, particularly if other siblings were also at that same school.     No BDM paperwork would have been needed.    Just because there's no NSW marriage or death registration found at the online index ... well it would be flukey but there are known flaws in the online index.   Could the person have married elsewhere ....  or become known by her partner's surname?

The Child Welfare Act has been amended many times .... here it is in 1924
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb//au/legis/nsw/num_act/cwa1924n69222/

My rellie will think more about this and contact me tomorrow.

JM

[Jang]

Thanks JM, you've given me a lead.  I didn't think to check for a marriage under her mother's married name. And one has popped up with the same first name :-)

Jan

[majm]

Great.  Fingers crossed.

Hopefully Bron (the OP for this thread) will be along shortly to contact davideb 

Hi Bron63,
I have just discovered the RootsChat resource and have now registered. The 2014 chat thread re Adoptions has caught my interest.
Frances Firth (1830 - 1864) who lived in Cassilis, NSW in at least the early 1860's, is my G-G Grandmother on my Dad's side. Before he passed 10 years ago, my Dad told me a piece of verbal family history about a boundary-rider in the Cassilis district of NSW who was killed in a horse accident. That boundary-rider is said to have been Frances Firth's partner and father of her two daughters (Agnes May and Mary Ann Firth). It is thought that he may have been Indigenous (a Wiradjuri man?).
I have for a number of years been using the Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker resources to piece together a Family Tree, with the help of my sister and a few cousins, but the boundary rider remains elusive! I have scrolled through a number of pages of the Adoptions thread but couldn't find any details that may help me to verify my family history. Do you recall seeing anything at that time that may help me to identify the boundary rider? I would be very appreciative of any assistance you could give. I have also sent this message to Majm. Thanks.

JM

[Jang]

Thanks JM. I think I'm on to something. Right first name, stepfather's surname, and his first name on her death in the BDM. Different mother's name and age at death is wrong but marriage date makes her a bride at 15, so that seems suspect. She appears in two online trees - , different middle names, no descendants and neither has parents for her. Tantalisingly there are two anonymous comments for her on the Find a Grave site, one of which mentions a younger sister which fits.

Not sure where to go from here. I will get the marriage and death certificates but don't think they're going to be much help.

Jan