How would this adoption have been documented in the registers?

[Frank Toms]

I have the name and details of the mother but nothing on the child - she became pregnant and was 'sent away' to have the baby (this was probably 1930s/40s) and the baby was adopted straight away. Would there be any official records with the birth mother's name and the baby's original name on it, or would the baby have been 'born' and registered with its adopted name?

If the father was unknown, how would that have been registered at GRO - the mother's surname as both the child's name and the mother's maiden name, or just a dash for mother's maiden name because they're the same?

[AntonyMMM]

The child would be registered as normal, and later the entry would be annotated as "adopted" once the adoption order was forwarded to the relevant superintendent registrar.

If the mother was unmarried, the father would only be named if he was present at the registration (probably unlikely in this sort of case). Birth registrations, in England/Wales, don't show any surname for the child (before 1969) so the entry would just be indexed under the surname of the mother.

The old printed index (as used on FreeBMD/Ancestry/FindMyPast etc.) would show the indexed surname and the "maiden name" of the mother as the same. The new GRO index (correctly) would show the maiden name with a dash, but births are only indexed on that site up to 1934, and then from 1984 onwards.

A separate entry would then be made in the Adopted Children's Register under whatever adoptive name the child was given and with details of the adoptive parents and the court granting the order.

[Frank Toms]

Great thank you. Is the Adopted Children's Register searchable for that time, is anything online?

It sounded as if the adopting parents were decided and ready for when the baby was born, how long after the baby was born/adopted would the adoption have been registered? And would the child's original date of birth (or at least month/quarter) be on that register?

I have a few candidate births from FreeBMD to compare to the ACR so might be able to track down the correct entry based on date, even more so if the first names match in both.

[AntonyMMM]

The index of the Adopted Children Register is not online - you can search it on microfiche at a small number of designated libraries.

The adoption could have been a few weeks, months or longer after the birth.

The date of birth will be shown on the register entry in the ACR (but not in the index)  -  it will be indexed in the quarter the adoption order was granted.

It might be possible to narrow down a number of entries by comparing both indexes, but is very difficult, and you would have to get certificates from both to compare properly.

The adopted person, or their close family members (in some circumstances), can get automatic access to their original birth entry. https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records

[iolaus]

If you want to see an example of how they were indexed (it's my aunt - she died in 1990 and I'm not giving her adopted name but the link to her original birth index)

Noreen Tiday Jun quarter 1933 in Billesdon

On her birth certificate (or at least the copy I purchased later I presume the one issued at the start didn't) it has adopted written in the right hand border and signed

On the certificate her fathers details has a line through - freebmd says mothers surname, gro index actually uses a line

[Heb66]

Hi,
I go to the British Library in London to view the adoptions register. I think it's also held at Plymouth library and Birmingham, but you need to check on this.
Hope this helps.
Helen.

[Frank Toms]

Thanks all, have only just seen the other replies.

So am I right in thinking that if Jack McThompson McGregor was adopted after he was born and then went by the name of John Smith Jones, I would find a birth record on GRO/FreeBMD under the McGregor name but not the Jones name?

[carol8353]

Thanks all, have only just seen the other replies.

So am I right in thinking that if Jack McThompson McGregor was adopted after he was born and then went by the name of John Smith Jones, I would find a birth record on GRO/FreeBMD under the McGregor name but not the Jones name?

Yes correct, with his surname as McGregor which presumably was also his mother's surname.