xx

[johnallan]

xx

[Ayashi]

Is there a chance that he might have been adopted and his name changed?

[johnallan]

xx

[avm228]

If he was adopted, any birth certificate you order for him will be endorsed "adopted" on the far right-hand side (without further details).

[AntonyMMM]

Any death would be registered in the usual way.

Start with the birth certificate, as suggested previously.

[Guy Etchells]

If the child died in his/her early years there should be a record in the GRO deaths index more recent deaths are not on the online index but may be seen at one of seven locations
•   Library of Birmingham
•   Bridgend Local and Family History Centre
•   City of Westminster Archives Centre
•   Manchester Central Library
•   Newcastle City Library
•   Plymouth Central Library
•   The British Library (you’ll need to register first)
If still alive
This is one of those cases where technology is a drawback rather than an advantage, a few years ago I would have said try telephone directories but now most use mobiles this does not really help.

Electoral registers may help as could things like Facebook and linked-in there are databases available to finance companies but these are very expensive and hard for individuals to get access to (but not impossible) these databases are the most comprehensive behind electoral registers.
There are other methods but this is a start

Cheers
Guy

Assuming in England & Wales

[johnallan]

xx

[AntonyMMM]

When you say "record of birth" what exactly have you got .... information from the index, or an actual birth certificate ?

The note "adopted" is added to the original birth register entry when an adoption takes place, which could be weeks, months or years after the birth. Any certificates issued before the date of adoption won't show the note, any issued later will.

[Ayashi]

When you've looked for the death, have you only looked in the same area as the birth or all over the country? There's always potential that he went elsewhere.

I'm not sure how Rootschat policy would handle this- it's against the rules to search for living people but given that this person is expected to have died perhaps we might be allowed to attempt to search for it?