1921 Query

[margaret1]

I have found a 6 year old child living with her "adoptive" parents in the 1921 census. She is enumerated as being the couple's daughter, with their surname but her middle name is the surname of her biological mother - could this indicate that the "adoptive" parents knew the biological mother of the child? or maybe there is another explanation?
Also, the child is enumerated as  parents both alive. Would this mean that both the biological parents are alive or that both the "adoptive" parents are alive?

Margaret

[tonepad]

Looks like the biological mother was a single woman and that the child was probably born in a workhouse or some other institute for single mothers. The adoptive parents may only have met the biological mother once when the child was handed over for fostering, and the child's biological surname became known at handover. If the biological mother was a single women, then the biological father was probably unknown to the adoptive parents. So the entry on the census for both parents still alive is for the adopted parents.


Tony

[Jebber]

The adoptive parents most likely knew the mother as any arrangement would have almost certainly been private. Formal adoption didn’t start until 1927 after the adoption act was passed in 1926.

My mother-in-law born in 1920 was a similar case, her adoptive parents knew who her mother was. She was never formally adopted and never met her birth mother, although her adoptive mother pointed her birth mother  out to her across the street when she was about 9 or 10.

[KGarrad]

The adoptive parents most likely knew the mother as any arrangement would have almost certainly been private. Formal adoption didn’t start until 1927 after the adoption act was passed in 1926.

In Scotland, the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act came along in 1930.

[margaret1]

Thank you Tony, Jebber and KGarrad - for your help.
Margaret