Author Topic: False birth certificates/adoptions  (Read 1303 times)

Offline celtickids

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False birth certificates/adoptions
« on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:05 GMT (UK) »
Dear all. I stumbled upon an article about illegal adoptions and falsified records (on researchingreform if I have to quote the source). How I got there was by looking for an image of a birth certificate because articles on birth certificate serial numbers were puzzling me. The screenprint in the article looks really similar to the one I'm investigating. Can anyone please tell me which elements identify it a false record (or why it suggests an adoption), if indeed it is? Thanks in advance.

Offline LizzieL

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #1 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:25 GMT (UK) »
Do you mean false in the sense that the whole document was a forgery, i.e not issued by GRO or a local register office (but looked like it was on an official form), or that some of the information supplied was false?
A registrar would not independently check that the information supplied by the mother (or other informant) was correct. So an unmarried woman could claim she was the wife of the father of the child. Or a date of birth could be adjusted so it fell in the 42 day time limit for registration.
Illegitimate children of daughters could be registered as children of the couple who were actually the child's  grandparents. A married woman who had an extra-marital relationship could register the resulting child as that of her legal husband.
Berks / Oxon: Eltham, Annetts, Wiltshire (surname not county), Hawkins, Pembroke, Partridge
Dorset / Hants: Derham, Stride, Purkiss, Sibley
Yorkshire: Pottage, Carr, Blackburn, Depledge
Sussex: Goodyer, Christopher, Trevatt
Lanark: Scott (soldier went to Jersey CI)
Jersey: Fowler, Huelin, Scott

Offline LizzieL

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #2 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:29 GMT (UK) »
And I believe there was post on here some time ago about a registrar in the early days of registration, "registering" fictitious births, since they were. paid per registration
Berks / Oxon: Eltham, Annetts, Wiltshire (surname not county), Hawkins, Pembroke, Partridge
Dorset / Hants: Derham, Stride, Purkiss, Sibley
Yorkshire: Pottage, Carr, Blackburn, Depledge
Sussex: Goodyer, Christopher, Trevatt
Lanark: Scott (soldier went to Jersey CI)
Jersey: Fowler, Huelin, Scott

Offline LizzieL

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #3 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:34 GMT (UK) »
The Samuel Bowers on the certificate you posted can be found on the 1861 census with his parents and siblings in Ollerton, so he seems to have existed.
Berks / Oxon: Eltham, Annetts, Wiltshire (surname not county), Hawkins, Pembroke, Partridge
Dorset / Hants: Derham, Stride, Purkiss, Sibley
Yorkshire: Pottage, Carr, Blackburn, Depledge
Sussex: Goodyer, Christopher, Trevatt
Lanark: Scott (soldier went to Jersey CI)
Jersey: Fowler, Huelin, Scott


Offline Dundee

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #4 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:41 GMT (UK) »
Adoption in the UK was not legally recognised until the 1926 Adoption of Children Act.  The birth certificate you have posted is from 1858 so I don't see how this could be used as an example on an article about illegal adoptions.  If you mean that a child was taken and registered against the will of the biological parent/s then in 1858 that would be called kidnapping.  Can you post a link to the article?

Debra  :)

Offline arthurk

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #5 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:46 GMT (UK) »
The Researching Reform article with this image is here:

https://researchingreform.net/2019/01/15/adoption-agency-caught-illegally-registering-births-goes-into-voluntary-liquidation/

I suspect this is a generic image, and given that the certificate shown was issued soon after the person's 68th birthday I'm not sure how it might apply to an adoption. But maybe I'm missing something?

Offline KGarrad

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #6 on: Sunday 12 March 23 11:59 GMT (UK) »
The certificates in question are from Ireland.
Different country; different rules?
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline Dundee

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #7 on: Sunday 12 March 23 12:06 GMT (UK) »
Another one here

https://researchingreform.net/2019/05/17/politicians-call-for-state-inquiry-into-forced-and-illegal-adoptions/

It is actually just an ad to get you to click through to Pinterest.

celtickids you would be better off just giving details of your own problem and what you are trying to find out.

Debra  :)

Offline KGarrad

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Re: False birth certificates/adoptions
« Reply #8 on: Sunday 12 March 23 12:12 GMT (UK) »
Also the Adoption Agency in question went into liquidation in December 2018.
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)