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Morning all,
This a such a long long shot, my wife is looking for her birth sister, we assume she was adopted . All we know is that she was born about 1971 in Suffolk and we think in Ipswich. Her parents were Douglas H Hood and Jean May Hood, Jean has also been known as Jean May Murray and Jean May Underwood.
My wife was adopted at birth and Angela Hood was her birth name.
Jean was born in 1929 and Douglas was born in 1933.
As I said I know it's a long shot, but if anybody has any info please get back to me.
Cheers
Mike

Any idea what the sisters name was?

jax

Hi Jax,
To be honest we don't have a clue, we can't even seem to find another birth other than my wife for Jean and Douglas. We are certain that there is another child as wife has a letter from the Social Services who dealt with her adoption stating that they had another daughter. Other than that we no nothing.

MIke

Mike,

Jean would have been 42 when she married Douglas in 1971. Is this correct?

Rose

When was your wife born? Not seeing an Angela Hood with mother's maiden name Murray/Underwood.

Rose

You give several names for the mother but any births would be entered in her maiden name

jax

Sorry guys, forgot to say what Jeans maiden name was. It was Burch, born 1929 Shottisham Suffolk
You would be correct Rose, Jean was about 42 when she married Douglas, my wife was born in 1973

Cheers
Mike

Sure it wasn't just that Jean previously had another daughter from her previous marriage?

Rose

I do see one possible daughter from her first marriage born in 1946.

Rose

Also see sons born in 1945 and 1952.

Rose

Hi Rose,
We have the other info that you mentioned and have obtained the birth certs for them and confirmed that they would be my wifes half brothers and sister. But the letter I mentioned does state that Jean and Douglas had another child which would be my wifes full sister. It also states that my wife is one of five children that Jean had, we know about four of them, my wife included in the four. But there is a mystery child that we just cannot find. I've tried every search parameter you could think of , it's getting very frustrating now.
Mike

I don't see anything. Do you know when she divorced Mr. Underwood? Given Jean's age, the sister must have been born c1971 or earlier.

Perhaps there's a chance they kept the elder sister.

Rose

Following the marriages ............I am stuck with Underwood
only one is a Jean M CLITHEROE
Then there is the Murray marriage

Fairthorn,

Not sure about that one as there's a marriage for a Frances G Burch in Debden in 2005.

Rose

Do you think I should delete it ?
does Michael says if they were ALL adopted ?
ie the 1946/1952 children ?


:-)

Fairthorn.

Let's wait untik Mike returns.

I've found marriages for the 2 sons in their birth names so it doesn't look like they were adopted.

Rose

Mike,

Douglas and Jean are listed on the electoral roll/phone book Has your wife thought about to contacting them via a third party?

Rose

Hi all,
Rose, Fairthorn, I can't find a divorce for an Underwood, or even a marriage, have seen the Clitheroe one but can't confirm it. Also, have found one on Ancestry for a Norman S Underwood who married a Burch but when you click on find the spouse link it comes up with a John Burch which is strange as it's two men or the record has been transcribed wrongly. When Jean married Douglas she still retained the name Underwood which I know is not that unusual. We have found out that Jean died in 2010 and the obituary we found online said loving husband of Douglas only, no mention of children etc so we assume that she gave them all up for adoption or they were brought up by the fathers only or in care homes, this would explain the same surname.
I came across Frances Gale Burch and thought I had hit the jackpot, name, dates all matched but when we received the birth cert it was a different mother.
We have considered contacting through a third party, but we and I don't know why just want abit of info before we do and to be honest my wife is very nervous about it.
Thanks for all the messages and searching you have done, it's very kind, hopefully one day we'll get there
Mike and Laura

Why does your wife think her sister was born in Suffolk ? her birth was reg in Norfolk.
Also why will SS not give your wife her sisters name as she was older than her ? normally it is younger siblings they will not tell you about.

My wife was born in Ipswich, which is Suffolk but the registration district was Norfolk at the time, I'm not sure why. Have also searched under Norfolk but to no avail. This letter from the Social Service is dated from when my wife was first adopted and nothing is on there apart from stating that she has a full sister who is older, born 1971.
We have contacted Suffolk and Norfolk councils about obtaining the full adoption records which might have more info. They have said at that time any adoptions carried out in Ipswich were dealt with the Cambridgeshire Council for some reason, We've contacted them but they say this is wrong and it should be under Suffolk or Norfolk, my wifes adopted father cannot recall the county. Just being passed from pillar to post now and getting no where