Genealogy Chat

My father was born in 1927 and adopted at birth and does not have the name of his natural parents. When he married my mother would he have shown his adoption certificate instead of his birth certificate to prove who he was? He only referred to his adopted parents as his Aunt and Uncle, and i don`t have any names to help in my search. Would finding my parents marriage certificate from 1951 help ?
Thanks in advance.

If he refered to his adopted parents as Aunt and Uncle, it does suggest he was not formally adopted.

If you parents are no longer around to ask, it might be worth buying a copy of their MC, just to check what (if anything) is given as his father's name.

If he was illegitmate, it would probably be blank. Think carefully if he is still with us..you don't want to open a can of worms.

(My Mother in law was highly embarrassed when told she was born 5 months after her parents marriage, and for her age, she is quite open minded!)

Adoption wasn't legalised until 1927 so he could have been born and 'adopted' before the system was operational.

Thankyou for this information. He is still around, he`s 83, but his memory is not great. His Aunt and Uncle were definately not blood relatives, but he knows he has a half sister who married a GI. So i am presuming this is the daughter of his Aunt and Uncle.

You say he has a "half sister" that you presume to be Aunty and Uncles and yet they were not his blood relations then how can she be his half sister as they would then have to have either the same mother or father ?
Sorry but I just wondered.
Do you mean she is also an adopted child by them and therefore his adoptive sister?

Was he born in England?.. Does he know where?

Does he have a birth certificate rather than an adoption certificate?
Perhaps he has a short certificate, inwhich case it would be an idea to order a full certificate to see what details are shown.

Gwyn

Dad has not got a birth or adoption certificate. I will try to get a copy of the marriage certificate and as your tips recommend i can find out more information from that. I never thought about the names of witnesses before so that will be a great help. Thanks again.

He was born in Scotland, and brought up in Edderton by Tain in Ross-shire. My mother was evacuated here from Glasgow, which is where they met.

Normally we would suggest you look at Scotlandspeople, but their on line MC only go up to 1934.

Someone has said the index can be searched in person *somewhere* in Scotland. if you perhaps added SCOTLAND to you title, someone who knows could point you in the right direction and give up to date advice.

Scotlandspeople..
I have already given Charlotte the website on her other thread about her Emery/Hargreaves line on TTF


Marriages 1855-2006

does this not mean that the marriage can be searched for and ordered through their site for £10 .. DET?

Please do say if I am wrong as I havent searched for a marriage of that time on there.

Edit...
It is on there in 1951 I believe and can be ordered...

There are also only 2 births in 1927 for what could be his birth,"maybe",if he retained his birth name when "adopted"that is.

was he raised with the same surname as this Aunt & uncle?

You are probably right FannyByGaslight.

Looking at it again, Scotlandspeople says that IMAGES are only available up to 1934, but the INDEX is searchable up to 2006.

I stand corrected.

: ¬ )

I signed up to Scotlands people and have found the marriage certificate for James Maclean and Rosomond Emery, married on 14/8/51. It was registered in Tain, Ross and Cromarty 082/00/0022. I have ordered the extract for £10 and it will take 20+ days plus postage time to get here before i can find any more information.

The images were not available to veiw :(

If the person in question was formally adopted in Scotland it would be after 1930 as before that year all were by private arrangement,,,,,

I have now received my fathers marriage certificate. In the parents section it read` Harriet Hatton McLean, daughter of an engine pattern maker`. I then tried to trace his birth certificate. He was born and registered in Kelvin, Glasgow 16/4/1926. Entry no 544, which i need to order.

Harriet Hatton McLean was born 3/1/1906. 644/09 0112.
Her father Peter McLean was a patternmaker, and her mother was Harriet, maiden name Hatton.( Records say Hutton). I also have their parents details.

Dad and his sister Mary were sent to Kiltarlity, Inverness, when he was 18 months, and his sister was 5 or 6 years old. As i have no father to trace, i tried to find his mothers death certificate. The records show she died in 1988, still living in Glasgow, aged 82. ( 615/00 0186)

I then searched to see if she ever married. The records show Harriet Hatton McLean, married James Skinner 5/7/1929. (644/11 0227).
I have James`s father Donald and mother Mary nee Weir.
I traced them on the 1901 Scottish census and see they originated from Ireland, but cannot find more details than that. (644/10 004/10 007)

Dad was sent to stay with (Maggie Kate Dhue) translated as Margaret Catherine MacDonald. He told me this when i visited him yesterday.She was an old spinster who was shellshocked during WW1 and he does not know how or why they ended up there as i cannot find any family connection. As his mother Harriet was a servant when he was born, he always wondered if this was why he couldn`t stay with his mother. Both her parents had died by the time she married James in 1929.
Around 1937 Margaret was sent to an asylum in Inverness suffering from senility, she went missing from there and had managed to find her way back home to Kiltarlity where she was found 10 days later, she had died alone. He did say there was a newspaper article on it, so i will try the Inverness Courier archives to find out more.

My Dad and Mary were then sent to Edderton, by Tain, to stay with Aunt Isabel and Uncle William Munro. They were also not related. He went to school for a couple of years before leaving to work on the home farm. The Munro`s died around 1945, and my dad had to move on again.
This is the story so far, there are still pieces to put together to find out if he has any living relatives .
Thanks again for all the messages, and it is only polite to let you all know the outcome of my search. I have learned a lot from you all. Thanks

Thank you for the update Charlotte.
Its always nice to know how things went.

Just one question,I know I ask a lot at times!

You say he has a sister Mary,did she marry and have children?Do you know what happened to her?

Mary married a GI during the war. They had lost touch by this point as he was travelling around finding farm work as he was married and having to support his own family. I have contacted people on Genes that have a Mary McLean on their trees but no relatives have been found yet. I have still not found Marys Birth Record.