WHERE DO I START TRACING MY MUM'S BIOLOGICAL PARENTS?

[Merlin]

Can anyone point me in the right direction please. I have very limited information - not sure who to contact or where to look?

TIA

Never thought about ration cards - will ask her if she can remember anything.

What I do know is that when her adoptive Mum died there was absolutely no paperwork about her at all.

thats very interesting - it must have been destroyed ( either deliberately or by accident). you couldnt adopt a child and have no paperwork at all! They must have had medical cards, school reports etc

I'm sure your mum will remember about her ration card....it didnt end til 1954 when she was 17!!

do you think your mum woudl consider going for counselling or to an adoptee support group or similar? 58 years is a very lomg time to carry around in your head an idea of your background. in all probablity she is about to doscover that the story she has in her head and heart is incorect. it can be shattering

i think this is especially true as she has told no one in thsi time, so she's not had a chance to talk about "teh story". It will be frozen in her head as teh ideas of a 12yo.

has she talked to you about what she imagines to be "her story"? ( I dont mean tell us!!). personally i dont like teh phrase " who you really are" or similar - you are the person you are - that doens't change because of the actions and events that happened mostly before you were born.

she may find out new facts and may have strong feeling about that & the pepople involved. But she wont suddenly at the age of 70 becoem a diffenert person!!

Merlin, if you live near London, go to the family records centre in Finsbury - in half a day and armed with just my mums' name I managed to find a half-brother, my mums wedding, and my grandparents birth, marriage & death detils. see here

They have birth/marriage/death/adoption data that covers the enitre country - the more unusual the name the easier the trace. the place is just like a library with all the books in date order so it's quite easy to trace things from one event to another. There's plenty of staff around as well. I would recommend a day trip even if it were quite a commute...

Oh, Merlin, I should add, she will I think need to get her real birth certificate first, phone them to find out (not sure if that info is kept classified - I think it might be because you have to have a counselling session with social services before getting hold of the info)

Thanks for that Squiffy.

Yes, she needs to get her full, real birth certificate first which is what she has just applied for. She will then have to see a counsellor to get the info from that.

After that, she will decide how much further she wants to investigate.

hows it going merlin - any news?

An update - Mum had her meeting and has found out that her BM is of Germanic descent (judging from the surname). They have also confirmed that she was officially adopted at the age of 9 (which she remembers), but no other paperwork is forthcoming at mo. The puzzle now is why so long before the adoption? Was her BM still in contact maybe until she was killed in the war (That is Mum's feeling).

Anyway she is going to go on the contact register and we will see what else turns up. Mum seems to be taking it all in her stride, but it felt a bit strange seeing my grandmothers name (albeit a foreign one!) on the certificate. We were expecting a Smith or Jones!

I'm glad your mum has some useful information. have you thought of searching the births deaths and marriages records? have you contcated NORCAP?

Births, marriages and deaths is the next stop I guess. Does Norcap do the same thing as the Government contact register? That's the one she is going on.

OK - Mums full certificate arrived today. Reveals no more information other than an address where she was born (her adoptive mum always used to point out the hospital, but this is a residential address). Also nothing under 'occupation' which maybe points to her being underage.

So, my question is now armed with only her birth mother's name and the address where is the best place to start looking for more info?

If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be really grateful.

You don't suppose her mother could have been interned? Just thinking about the timing, the coastal location and the German name.... (off to scout around the internet - completely random thought but if it was something like that someone like the Anglo German family history society might be a long shot)

Hi legalien - apologies for my ignorance - but what does interned mean?

german nationals (and I think otehr enemy aliens If thats the right way to put it) were interned in camps during the war unless it was proved that they were not a threat to national security.

public records office link re internment here

Thank you Kewcucumber for that - interesting reading. Were there internments before war actually broke out - Mum was born 2 yrs before war.

no they were post war mostly I think, I think they did intern whole families but I'm shaky on my facts there.

Thanks KewC - Mums been giving a load of paperwork relating to where to continue her search, so am going to read through it all and then decide where we go next.

Thanks again for your interest and help.

I suspect leagalalian is right - your mothers story is somehow tied up with the war. if i were you i woudl research this a bit more.also follw up on sqiffy's suggestion of checking out the public records. should be easier as her name is uncommon

dont you have a place of birth and marital status and DOB for HER mother? Isnt it on her birth certificate?

internment didnt start until after war broke out but Kc is right, they DID intern women and children as well. terrible . so her BM COULD have been interned after she was born. most were released by 1943 but some not until 1945

its a very shocking and not very well known part of our history

I was thinking that if she was adopted at 2, this could have been the point at which her mother was interned i.e. 1939 - perhaps hand over child to non-German neighbours or friends given uncertainty of situation? It is a bit of a random idea though!

TMMJ - land registry sounds a good idea. Have looked on Google Earth and the address is still in existence so that's a start!

Kristina - no dob or maritial status for BM on certificate. Just place of birth.

Thanks all for your suggestions.