suffix

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suffix

Postby pirat3uk » Tue Oct 25, 2016 8:13 am

Hi to all, Been trying on and off for many years to assist my wife in discovering her biological family but we have repeatedly hit a stumbling block. My wife's birth certificate shows no father and has a handwritten note "adopted". Searching FreeBmd shows an entry with a suffix "s" which my research suggests means superseded (by another record?).
What we do not understand is there is no other reference. Other entries we have seen are suffix "s" and (usually) a handwritten amendment. Does this suggest an entry in an adoption register? Our understanding of the adoption process (1972) is that her birth certificate would be replaced by an adoption certificate? but a request for her birth certificate yields just that, her birth certificate as described.
Just to confound the issue the (FreeBmd) entry is "flagged" as a volume and range outside of use in that district at that time.
My wife's parents were married (to each other) at the time of her birth but it is common knowledge that her father is not her biological father and no other information has been offered.
After many false starts in our research I have found this forum and I am hoping someone can unravel the meaning of this and point us in the right direction.

Here's hoping!
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Re: suffix

Postby gardener » Tue Oct 25, 2016 1:30 pm

Hi :-)

I think this explains it quite well https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/ ... adopted_ch

As I understand it, the original registration is not changed, but "adopted" is added to the index and to any copy of the certificate that is issued.

You would need to look into the adoption agency (if not a private adoption) and there is information for that here http://www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk ... ecords.htm

Maybe some one on here will be able to tell you more.
"The present is the key to the past" - Charles Lyell
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Re: suffix

Postby pirat3uk » Wed Oct 26, 2016 9:28 am

Thanks Gardener for your response. I had already seen the freedom of information "discussion". I'm having difficulty understanding why a record would be marked as being "superseded" but no indication given as to where this new record can be found?
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Re: suffix

Postby gardener » Wed Oct 26, 2016 11:43 pm

As I understood it, the original index entry is "superseded" only in the sense that "adopted" has been added to it. Any birth certificate issued for that person will include that information and thus supersede an earlier version which did not have it.

Does that make sense?
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Re: suffix

Postby pirat3uk » Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:55 am

Thanks again Gardner, your reply has great clarity and I understand the explanation except for:
I can find no other original/altered birth entry for my wife. I have a theory! The entry I have described is typed, so it was known at the time of committing it to paper that the suffix "S" should be applied. This would suggest to me that this IS the amended entry and somewhere in the index is the original that will have been amended (by hand), although I cannot (to date) find another.
I have looked at the scan of the index and cannot see any annotation of "adopted" but note there are two strips either side of the original that seem to hide other columns, I can understand that this information is sensitive but I cannot "see" anything on the entry to cause the BC to be annotated "adopted".
I can see no purpose to this adoption, it is presumably to grant "parental rights" to the husband of the mother (although he is not the natural father)but there does not seem to be any documents to evidence this. My presumption would be that a request for a BC should produce an adoption certificate, which it does not.
If anyone reading this has experience of adoption under these circumstances please contribute.
Thanks again Gardner for your time-much appreciated.
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Re: suffix

Postby Northern Lass » Thu Oct 27, 2016 8:59 am

Ok ...I found for a friend his certificate that was changed with his new surname and then I found his original surname
The christian names were the same but surname was changed.

could that be the case with your search?
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Re: suffix

Postby Northern Lass » Thu Oct 27, 2016 9:11 am

The original birth certificate is in the same christian name but a different surname and at the end are the words Adopted.

Then the revised birth certif has the new surname and the copy at bottom
says
"certified copy of an entry in the adopted children register maintained at the general register office given at the general register office
under the seal of the said office the ....day of ....

it has columns for
no of entry
date and country of birth of child
name and surname of child
name and surname address and occupation of adopter or adopters
date of adoption order and description of court by which made
date of entry
signature of officer
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Re: suffix

Postby grangers14 » Thu Oct 27, 2016 9:14 am

I will move this over to General discussion. This area is for guidance and this topic seems it needs more info that.
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Re: suffix

Postby pirat3uk » Thu Oct 27, 2016 10:45 am

Thanks for the move grangers14, as a beginner that's where I posted but appreciate a wider audience. Thanks Northernlass for your input. Pretty sure this was not the scenario here. My understanding of adopted, even if by natural parents, is that the birth certificate is replaced by an adoption certificate that would reference the Court which dealt with the application. In this case there does not seem to be an adoption certificate but (oddly) a birth cert annotated "adopted" and the name of the superintendent registrar.
The fathers name is blank (although the mother was by this time married) As I have said I can see no purpose for this adoption if it did not give rise to an adoption certificate to allow the husband parental responsibilities (or whatever they were called back then 1972). My presumption would be that the husband (and wife?) would have applied to the court for adoption but the natural father must have surely had some input? The contents of these proceedings are the only link to my wife's natural father as her mother has not offered any further information.
There is much, much more to this complex story but I have tried to confine it to this specific issue as we cannot surmount it and move forward.
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Re: suffix

Postby gardener » Thu Oct 27, 2016 12:31 pm

I have to say that they do not make it easy to find a route through all of this stuff! This link https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records leads on to

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... th-records

That seems to be the form that has to be completed, and because the adoption was pre-1975 there has to be an interview.

Odd that it is a form from the passport office!


The information sheet in that link says

"3. What information will the adoption advisor give me?
You will be given information about your birth name, birth parent(s) name(s) and your district of birth. You can then, if you
wish, apply for a copy of your original birth registration.
If you already have this information you may bypass this office
and contact the court that dealt with your adoption to see if they hold the name of the agency which placed you for
adoption."


Hope this works out for your wife (and you). I suppose that it has to be possible that the original birth record has no information about the birth father - in that case you would not learn anything from this process :-(
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