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This thread has been posted on behalf of my Mother-in-law, Heather Margaret Canning:

SEARCHING FOR A POSSIBLE LOST RELATIVE, WHAT COULD BE MY PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER, MARY THOMPSON.

My father, NORMAN CANNING, was born on 22nd February 1926 in the Waterside, Londonderry, County Londondery.

On gathering information to draw up a family tree I discovered that my Father’s Birth Certificate did not have the information on it I was expecting to find. I expected to find the name Lavinia Canning as Mother’s Name and instead found the name Mary Thompson with an address of 28 Bishop Street.

On his original Birth Certificate his Mother’s name is given as MARY THOMPSON, 28 Bishop Street. Also on his original Birth Certificate the name of the person registering his birth is given as W H Ballantine, Occupier, Infirmirary Waterside.
My Father was never told whom his Father was and that his maternal grandmother, Sarah Jane Canning, registered his birth and gave him the surname Thompson . No logical explanation was ever given for doing so.

He was brought up as the only child of the unmarried Lavinia Canning who lived with her brother John Canning and his wife Maude Poston, on the family farm known as Auglish in Banagher, County Londonderry. John and Maude had five children, Sarah Jane, Thomas, Ivor, Violet and Lawrence.

The aforementioned people are my family regardless of what I may or may not find with regard to Mary Thompson but I would welcome and be pleased to find out any information on Mary Thompson.

In the 1950s my Father changed his surname by Deed Poll to that of CANNING.

My Father married my Mother, Eleanor Elizabeth Dougherty on 18th December 1957 in Londonderry.