Has anyone gone down the ' ancesters ' road ?

[Tulipa]

Hi Paulines7,

I'm afraid adoption didn't legally start until 1927.  Before that children just took the new surname with no written record of it happening.  Makes it quite hard.  I had a relative who had two new surnames and I was just lucky that late in life to get his pension he changed his name by deed-poll and I have the original of it.  otherwise I wouldn't have known and would never have found him.  But I have never found his original father named on his birth certificate and wonder if he ever existed!

Sorry that wasn't the news you wanted. :(

T. x

[Tulipa]

[Carol]

Researched every branch and  twig of my family, my husbands and many others.  This started in 1987 and still find it fascinating and very addictive. 

[Paulines7]

Hi Paulines7,

I'm afraid adoption didn't legally start until 1927.  Before that children just took the new surname with no written record of it happening.  Makes it quite hard.  I had a relative who had two new surnames and I was just lucky that late in life to get his pension he changed his name by deed-poll and I have the original of it.  otherwise I wouldn't have known and would never have found him.  But I have never found his original father named on his birth certificate and wonder if he ever existed!

Sorry that wasn't the news you wanted. :(
T. x

Tulipa, thank you for your reply regarding adoptions.  Having found out who was probably Harry's father, through having his father's first name and surname as his first names (hope that makes sense), I then traced relatives of Harry's father through Genes Reunited.  They sent me some photos and I was amazed by the likeness to my friend.  She has a dilemma now as to whether or not she should tell her two old straight-laced aunties that their father was born out of wedlock and that the man they knew as their grandfather really wasn't any relation.   :-\

It would seem that I have opened up a whole can of worms in helping my friend.   ::)