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Advice please - finding a war baby

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  • Advice please - finding a war baby

    A second cousin of mine on dads side(found through ancestry yesterday - woo hoo and her dad, my cousin - who I remember as a rather suave 20 year old when I was a little kid - is still alive and kicking) has been talking to me on the phone today.

    She was saying that she would dearly like to find a girl born to her great aunt - hence her mums aunt - during the war years. Apparently she was illegitimate and likely the daughter of an american GI. The mother remained single and later went into a tb sanitorium and the child was fostered out and eventually adopted. Thats all her mother knows, apart from the girls name, which I guess I cant put on here as she may well be alive still.

    Second cousin says her mum is desperate to find this cousin as her mother always felt guilty at not being able to adopt her herself at that time.

    She says she has searched the bmd with no sign of the name given to her and found on the back of an old photo - before the girl was adopted. Now are any of the bmd missing for the war years, which is what she had been told? And has anyone any other ideas of tracking down this girl. Apparently she has made enquiries of various likely adoption agencies but drawn a blank.

  • #2
    I think I would run in the opposite direction to be honest. This person might not even know that they are adopted. I thought you could register with Norcap?
    Click here to order your BMD certificates for England and Wales for only £9.25 General Register Office

    Do you have camera? Click here to see if you can help Places of Worship

    Jacob Sudders born in Prussia c.1775 married Alice Pidgeon in 1800 in Gorelston. Do you know where Jacob was born?

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    • #3
      Well she was adopted a child not a baby Pips, so she would be aware.

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      • #4
        Think you need Jess's advise on this one Heather.

        I can't see how you will find her unless she is looking herself. Her name was probably changed if she was adopted.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Heather Positive Thinker View Post
          Well she was adopted a child not a baby Pips, so she would be aware.

          How old was she when adopted? She may not remember.

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          • #6
            Hi, yes, it would probably have been better on the adoption board actually - I didnt really think about the adopted bit, just the finding of her!

            Well, second cousin has a pic of her as perhaps 5 years old. But as you say, if she isnt looking then theres not a great hope is there.

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            • #7
              Pesonally i cannot see the harm in putting her name here - given that it was a name she was known as pre adoption. if she , or someone else recognises it, all well and good, if she happens to pass by and knows she is adopted, thats again good. if she doesnt, she wont know!
              Jess

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              • #8
                If she hasn't found the original birth ref ,she isn't looking inthe right place, or at the right time.
                Jess

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                • #9
                  Right thanks Jess, so the bmd ref should be there, whether or not it was war years. She said shed been told some of the war bmd were missing.

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                  • #10
                    Heather

                    If you want to pm me what you know and where you've looked so far I will have a gleg at some of the indexes.

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                    • #11
                      I know several people who have always been called by their second forename e.g Violet Mary Clarence George
                      In the GRO index, the name these two are known by appears as a middle initial only.
                      It may be that she needs to search again, widening her criteria. Also, if the child was illegitimate, the Mum could have gone outside of her home area for the birth, into a very different registration district.

                      Jay
                      Janet in Yorkshire



                      Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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                      • #12
                        I think it is largely a myth that bmds from the war years are missing. They are no more likely to be missing than at any other time. I certainly know of no bombing of any register office, either local or the GRO.

                        One wonderful spur for registering a birth during the war years was that you needed a birth cert in order to get a Ration Book and as she initially kept the child, she would have needed a Ration Book for her.

                        Misindexed or out of area is far more likely - also don't forget that pregnant women were sent out of the cities during the war years.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          My birth isn't missing. And I have my name in lights as the last entry on an index page.
                          Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                          • #14
                            Many thanks people. I think this is possibly a case of distorted memory from the mum - things seem a lot different when you are a child yourself and may be she has the dates etc. wrong.

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                            • #15
                              Baby might also have been registered as "female" with surname?
                              ~ with love from Little Nell~
                              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                              • #16
                                If the mother went to an M + B Home, it is JUST possible that the baby was registered with a false name, although unlikely in this case as she kept the baby.

                                OC

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                                • #17
                                  Apparently she went into a tb sanatorium and the child was adopted after she had been in their for ages. Then the mother committed suicide so not a happy life for her.

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