Genealogy Forum UK

Hi, my name is Gill, I've been delving into genealogy on and off for the last 10 years or so.
Mainly on my paternal side but I have a specific question I hope someone here can help me with... My dad (now deceased) was raised by his biological mother who wasn't married and never got married.
We have his birth certificate which names his mother as the birth mother and he was given her surname (Sadler) we know the name of his father because we also have a child support order and a certificate stating he was an illegitimate child. However, we also have an adoption certificate that was issued when he was approximately 16 years old and basically seems to give legal parentage to his birth mother (my grandmother) and I'm just confused as to why she would need to adopt her own son 16 years after having given birth to him?
He joined the RAF shortly after leaving school and I'm wondering if that has anything to do with it?
I've tried asking this question on Google but with no success so I'm hoping someone here might be able to shed some light!
Thanks for reading. Gill

hi gill welcome to the forum

Moved to Gen Disc section.

Hi and welcome

Is it possible that your grandmother was young when she gave birth? Could parental rights have been assigned to a relative? Parent or sibling? And then when your father was approaching the age of 16 he was officially adopted by his mother, to tidy things up and make her status legal. I'm just guessing.

Single mothers without family support could have their babies taken away in the 50s and 60s. This has some interesting stuff by a social worker https://childprotectionresource.online/ ... -act-1989/ "CHILDREN AND YOUNG PERSONS ACT 1969
This was the Act that was in force when I began my social work career in 1980 and I recall that it was not difficult to obtain a Care Order."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/t ... 82370.html

Perhaps your grandmother had enough family support to avoid having her baby taken away, but social workers were involved in some way. Now a mother has automatic parental rights, irrespective of age I think

Hi, thanks for your responses. To the best of my knowledge, my grandmother bought up my dad without any assistance from her family (in fact she was ostracized from some of the family because of the situation) but she was in her thirties when she gave birth so no need for parental rights to have been assigned elsewhere. It's really puzzling me and I hope I can get to the bottom of it.