Genealogy
Finding family without a birth certificate.
Hoowhoowho · 04/10/2021 21:54
My grandfather was orphaned as a toddler in the First World War. He never knew his family.
A few years ago my parents traced their family tree using his birth certificate. However recently it became apparent that the birth certificate he was given on leaving the orphanage was not infact his at all.
How do you trace the family of someone whenyou don’t know who they are? It could just be a mix up and his name at least is accurate, it is a very common name, think Jack Jones or it’s possible he was raised with the wrong name entirely.
My mother, an only child since her brother died as a child, with no maternal cousins, would love to find her paternal family but how to do that without so much as an accurate name and date of birth. It is like the trail ends there. Anyone had a similar experience or has any ideas?
tintodeverano2 · 04/10/2021 21:58
You could do dna tests. However, ideally you would need both of your parents to do them as well so you can determine which side of the family dna matches are from.
Saker · 06/10/2021 15:56
DNA testing is certainly a possibility.
Otherwise I think it would be impossible to find someone without at least some information about them or their family. However it does seem the most likely possibility is that he has been mixed up with someone with the same name rather than just been given a completely random birth certificate. So you could work on the basis that the name is right. Do you know if he had any siblings? Do you know when he left the orphanage? Next year the census records for 1921 will be released and if he was still in the orphanage then, you might be able find if his name is duplicated in their census records and see if there is any other information about his namesake. The other thing is whether any records for that orphanage still exist though it is probably unlikely. It is the sort of thing that would be held in local archives at the library if it does exist. If you want to PM me I could see if there is any help I can give you though I'm not very hopeful.
waybill · 06/10/2021 16:08
How did you discover that the birth certificate he was given wasn't his?
shrugshrug · 09/10/2021 09:14
A DNA test would be really helpful. Your Mum should do one if she wants to find out more information about her Dad's family.
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