My Grandfather Harold Arthur Forrest was born in 1919 to Harold Forrest and Irene Hardinge. He had a birh certificate stating this and used it throughout his life, presumably to get married, join the army etc. Later on in his life, he posted his birth certificate somewhere (possibly to the DVLA or somewhere similar) and it was lost in the post. He tried to get a copy in order to continue his admin task and recalled that there was an 'A' marked in the top corner. When he called someone (not sure who) to ask if they could issue a new certificate, he was told that they couldn't locate a birth certificate for him and that the A simply meant he was adopted. Now he had no idea that he had been adopted and searched for years with help from the salvation army to trace his roots but he died never knowing the truth about his past.
I am trying to find out more but it is very tough! I have found his marriage certificate, no problem. I have access to censuses when he was a boy, living with Irene Hardinge and Harold Forrest and his brother Peter Forrest. I have found Peter's birth certificate and my great grandfather's (Harold Senior) but for my grandfather there is nothing. I ordered a full copy of his brother's birth certificate and it had Mother: Irene Forrest, Late Hardinge, Formerly Spear. I understand this to mean that she was married prior to marrying my great grandfather and since the marriage was in 1922, 3 years after my grandfather was born it would seem that a man with the surname Hardinge was the father of my grandfather and he died before she remarried. However, I can't find any trace of a Hardinge/Spear marriage, I can't find a birth or census info for Irene prior to her becoming a Forrest. My grandfather's birth is non existant and yet he had a birth certificate with both of the people he knew ad his parents on it and apparently a mark identifying him as adopted. Where on earth could his birth certificate have been registered? If adoption wasn't a concept prior to 1927, how did he come to be adopted and have documentation showing Harold Senior as his Father? I have searched every combination of names and dates for Spear/Hardinge/Forrest and still no trace of my grandfather, my great grandmother or her fist husband have surfaced. Am I missing something glaringly obvious here?!
To muddy the water further, my mother recalls that Harold Senior and Irene had a lodger, an elderly man living in their large home, by the name of Hardinge! Possible Father of a man who married Irene and fathered Harold (jr) and then died? Arghhh I've been at this for weeks and I'm going round in circles!
