Stepfather adopting stepchild-records

[belindy]

I am trying to verify whether my grandmother was adopted by her stepfather when her mother married him or she just used his surname.

My grandmother was born 1918 in London, England. We were told that her biological father was killed in action before she was born.
Her mother married a NZ soldier a year later and they had a biological daughter in 1920 before moving to NZ in 1923.
My grandmother was listed in the passenger list under the stepfathers surname and it is the only surname she used until she got married.

Where might I find information regarding this supposed adoption?

[dawnsh]

Legal adoption in England & Wales commenced in 1927 so there are no 'official' records before that date.

Step-children taking on a step-father's surname after marriage to a mother was a frequent occurence under those circumstances.

[belindy]

Hi dawnsh,
Darn I was hoping that would be the way to find more information. I'm not having luck anywhere else.

Thank you for your reply

[KGarrad]

Are you trying to trace your grandmother's family?

If you can trace that marriage, in 1919, you should have her mother's former married name.
From that, you have a start looking for the birth in 1918!

FreeBMD should help you here.

Or tell us the names involved, and some clever RootsChatter will look for you!

[belindy]

Hi KGarrad,
I have the marriage certificate and it states that Dorothy May BARNES married Robert MILLIGAN and her fathers name was Charles George BARNES.
Married 1919.
According to their youngest daughter, my grandmothers biological father was MV BARNES. I do doubt that he existed and that Mr MILLIGAN was the biological father but they were trying to hide the fact that the daughter was illegitimate.

[lizdb]

Have you got your grandmothers birth cert?
That will name her father (or be blank if illegitimate) - as it occurred before step father came on the scene it cant have his name on it instead!

[belindy]

Sorry yes I should have put that information in the last post.
There is no father listed(if he was deceased would his name still have been put on?).

There is however a NZ address recorded which I found quite strange!

[LizzieW]

Father killed in the war was a convenient cover for an illegitimate child.  Of course, it could have been true but it doesn't mean the parents were married.  When you say there was a NZ address recorded do you mean in the box where the father's name should be?  Perhaps you could find out where Mr Milligan was during WW1.

By the way, my g.gran had a child apparently by her husband in 1878 and she has his name on the certificate with the word "deceased" by it.  Later on she got together with my g.grandfather although they never married.  I have no idea why because they were together from 1883 until her death in 1928 with my g.grandfather continuing to live at the same address until his death in 1935.  Maybe her husband wasn't deceased.

[lizdb]

If the father is not recorded on the birth cert, or on any other surviving record (christening etc) then you will never know who he was, and cannot make any assumptions about her parentage.
If the mother was a spinster when she married Milligan, then one assumes the baby was illegitimate rather than from a previous marriage.
You will need to consider if you want to follow Milligan, as the person who took her on and was a father figure to her, or, if you are only concerned with blood lines, then you will only be able to follow the Barnes line from her mother.