Find Living Relatives

thankyou everyone am applying for some birth certificates , fingers crossed

yes i have considered other people in this i didnt even think about this site and my messages possibly reaching a wrong person, yes i have my adoption papers but they only have my birth mother and her job etc no mention of a father , maybe i need to try another route as if valeerie is alive still i doubt she has any knowledge of my existance and would be a very elderly lady by now,

Valerie Clarke is not connected to you, and, if still living, would probably be extremely upset if she knew that she is being discussed on this insecure site.
Do you have your adoption papers?

ye i have looked them up and the shop in robin hood lane was called floral hire and in white pages logged as r lewis, i am fairly certain i am heading the right way with my father but still unsure as to whether valerie clarke is right , my birth mother only told me he had a son about 8 years old but im certain i have the right person for my father as it ties in with some of my thru lines on ancestry and a very distant cousin who remembers r v lewis and that he had a son called simon but she didnt know anymore which was a terrible shame and had no idea where he may be

As well as looking at old electoral rolls have you considered that the businesses may have had telephones?

Have you googled the history of the roads you mentioned you may pick up some information or old photos. The Francis Frith site can be quite good. The businesses may have been mentioned or advertised in the local press.

I'm sorry to say that it doesn't sound as if you can rely on your birth mother's information being totally accurate.

As I said earlier, if she wasn't in touch with your father, she may not have known if he had more than one child from his marriage.
Her estimate of the son's age is also not necessarily correct.

Did she say that the son's name was Simon, or just that that he had "a son"?

i was born in 1964 sorry my information hasnt been very forthcoming , i was adopted straight away the small bits of information i have came via my birth mother who was not overly forthcoming with information and didnt want contact , she was very young and my father was married and in his forties and she was told to give me up by her parents which was the norm in those days , but i have had a lovly upbringing with my adopted family, i just woold like to know a little bit about who i am and who i look like etc and my children. i have a half sister on my mothers side but i havnt made contact as my birthmother did not want to pursue a relationship and i understand it is a very difficult situation if it was secret , as was the way then. so if i find my half brother im not sure how i would approach it , the 1921 census is correct its the same as i have from ancestry i believe that is my fathers side of the family, my birth mother s information was his name r.v.lewis known as victor , had plant shops in the 1960,s one on chester road and then robin hood lane hall green birmingham, and she thought his son was about 8 , i was born in 1964 so this is the sticking point on the information i have as the simon i am researching would have been 6 however everything else fits , its very difficult a bit like a jigsaw with huge gaps and i have been stuck at this point for a few years now, i was very disappointed my dna didnt proffer any closer relatives,

You definitely need the birth cert. It will give you his second forename, apart from anything else

How else can you be certain that the person you are trying to find is your father's son?

You haven't answered my question about whether you were born after 1958..................

Also, if you did manage to locate this man, what would you do with the information?

im fairly certain that he married a valerie clarke and i only know of 1 child although there may be more i havnt sent for birth certificates as i didnt think they would give any more inormation but i shall send off if they help, my fathers mother was ethel bailey and this is the side if the family that shows more on my dna results however mainly very distant relatives , i did write to one whose relative married my fathers sister , she did reply and verified that there was a son called simon but had no other information for me ,i shall send for a birth certificate and see if this helps

1921 Census Of England & Wales
25, Alum Rock Road, Saltley, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
Charles Lloyd Lewis Head Male 1893 28 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England General Metal Turner Out Of Work
Ethel May Lewis Wife Female 1892 28 Smethwick, Staffordshire, England - -
Ethel Joan Lewis Daughter Female 1916 5 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England - -
Richard Victor Lewis Son Male 1918 3 Birmingham, Warwickshire, England - -
Sarah Bailey Mother-in-law Female 1849 72 Dudley, Staffordshire, England - -

The last two Lewis/Clarke births are also recorded as Clarke...........so parents not married to each other

You don't seem to be sure that Valerie 1926 is actually the Valerie who married Richard, nor that Simon is a son of that particular Lewis/Clarke couple.

You do need his birth cert to be sure one way or the other.
Otherwise, you may be wasting energy looking for the wrong person.

Also the marriage cert, to verify Richard's wife's middle name (June, if she's Valerie 1926) and age.

Sorry Teresa, I am having a bit of trouble understanding. Are you saying that the Bailey family come up in your dna matches or your fathers Lewis relatives.

If it is the Lewis relatives are they not replying to messages? If they are not aware of you they might not consider replying.

Both Erika and I have asked if you have bought any certificates and you have not answered.

Have you obtained a copy of the birth cert?

Were you born after Simon?

If you feel it's worth spending money on it, you could get a copy of one (or all ???) of the other children's birth cert(s) to see the details.

Expensive to get them all, especially if they turn out to belong to other families!

You said your birth mother thought there was only one son - but she may not have been aware of the later children if she didn't have much contact with him.

yes that is definitly correct re the forces etc i have found a lot of this on ancestry and some of his wifes ethel may bailey relatives , but sadly none of them know a lot about my side of the family although they came up in my dna matches i seem to have hit a very dead end , i do know my father died young of his war injuries as a result of being a prisoner of war so the only near family member i have if he is still alive would be richard and valeries child/children, i am certain there was only 1 child but i may be wrong there , would be wonderful if there were more . thankyou again

1921 is the most recent census to have been made public, so your father won't appear on any census available to us.



Richard Victor Lewis
in the UK, World War II Allied Prisoners of War, 1939-1945
Name: Richard Victor Lewis
Nationality: British
Rank: Signalman
Birth Date: 24 Jan 1918
Birth Place: 4, Radstock Avenue, Wardend, Birmingham
Military Date: 15 Feb 1942 [ date of capture ]
Military Place: Singapore
Regiment: Malaya Command Signals
Service Number: 2582283
Father: Charles Richard
Mother: Ethel
Description: 31: Japanese Index Cards of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees, World War II: Lawrenson-Litten


His parents married in Birmingham in 1915, but were living in Lancashire in 1939.
I don't see Richard on the 1939 Register - he was probably already in the forces.

thankyou, it is so very difficult with only guesswork , i wish i had more information to give clues , i cant find a census record but i believe my father moved to robin hood lane halll green birmingham and had a plant shop prior to that he lived on chester road birmingham but cant even find any census records to confirm any people living there ,its very frustrating , i was so praying my dna may of shown something up

Re Simon Richard Lewis details posted by Kay????

The Warwickshire location might seem encouraging - but according to Companies House, he was born in 1961, so not the right person.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/bMlMxLznVzY-xeHhVEbAlfrdaxY/appointments


There's another Simon Richard Lewis, who is a dentist in Birkenhead.
But he was born 1955, so not him either.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/B3PxZKzWKupKAem2hdfu6iDzjvM/appointments

And as you know, there are others on Electoral Rolls, whose names don't come up in any other way in a Google search, so nothing to verify their ages.

thankyou to everyone taking time out to do some research for me it is very much appreciated , i am going to look down some of these new avenues and see where it takes me, it would be lovely to think there are more family out there but i am fairly certain they had only 1 child , although this information was given by my birth mother who wasnt married to him etc but she thought he had 1 son , i find a lot of dead ends but you have all given me some more work to do , valerie j lewis/clarke to my knowledge is still alive , i had a dna ancestor come up who had one of my fathers sisters in her tree but she had very little knowledge of this side of the family unfortunatly, or she didnt want to disclose, i did write again to her but have had no reply and it is very difficult if my birth was a secret and i do understand this , so i am going to get my head down and follow these leads thankyou everyone , i shall try keep you informed