Genealogy Chat

I can understand your confusion. The information I have stated is a mixture of what Mike has been told and my interpretation of what may have happened. Mike told by family and actual events He was abducted from hospital in Bristol when a day old by someone called Cook He was found 2 weeks later in Clutton and returned to parents. Ms Cook was sent to mental institution. Mike`s mother told him when he was 8 or 9 that he was their real son, but was adopted. Being so young, he didnt see the significance of it at the time. When Mike applied for birth certificate which was needed to apply for passport, the GRO sent him an adoption certificate. He didn`t realise it at the time, just saw it was a certificate, assumed it was his birth certificate, sent it to the passport office, and when they returned it, he put it in a drawer and forgot all about it. I came across it while sorting some things out and noticed that it was, in fact, an adoption certificate. The birth certificate that I have in the name of Cook and registered by baby`s grandfather is one I sent for after noticing it listed in the index. The name looked right, the place of registration looked right and the year and quarter was right. When it arrived, the date of birth was exactly the same as Mikes date of birth. Could be coincidence and I have got it completely wrong. Registration by abductee and subsequent adoption formality by birth parents is my hypothesis and interpretation of what may have happened. Other thoughts of mine It seems unlikely that he was actually adopted, as at the time his mother was 43 and his father 46, so I would have thought they would have been considered too old to adopt a baby. It was obviously done officially for him to have an adoption certificate. I hope that this clarifies the situation.

Hi Also somthing else I thought of..... if the Miss Cook person registered him and did it under illegal information (such as he is not the mother) then those papers would be of no good by law....am I right?? There or his birth registration would be no longer there. So then his birth parents would be able to do it and have it legal. What does everyone think of this? is this possible? Bev

If Miss Cook was sent to a Mental Institution, then there may not have been a trial. She may have been found unfit to plead - a sort of kindness, then, as she most certainly would have gone to Prison for kidnapping had she stood trial. Have you asked for a Times look-up on the Records Board? I am a bit puzzled - I may have got this wrong, please correct me, but you say your partner has his birth certificate(as registered by Mr Cook, senior) and it says 'adopted'. Surely, an adopted person would only be sent a copy of their post-adoption certificate? In other words, in his parents names, not in the name of Cook? How would he have come by his PRE-adoption certificate? Does he have a post-adoption certificate? As I say, I may have misunderstood you. I wonder if a phone call to the Registrar, explaining the situation, would be any use? Olde Crone

Hi I have a family member in my tree that was adopted and her aunt is really her mom. Looks so much like the rest of the family you would never know that she wasn't the birth child of the couple or her brothers and sisters. Is there an aunt that Mike is close to? or an older cousin?perhaps this is somthing as well. Bev

Hi, What date was the birth registered? Was it soon after the abduction? Pat

Incidentally, his parents are no longer with us. His father died in 1979 and his mother in 1995. Mike told me his story when I started doing his family tree.

I have printed out all your replies and Mike has read them all. He is really amazed at all the interest this has generated and is not upset by any of your suggestions. Something else that Mike has told me. The person called Cook who he was told abducted him, was sent to a mental institution after he was found. I went to the library today and looked at the local paper for 1946 but could find nothing. I only checked from the 24th October to the end of November, then my eyes started going squiffy with small print on microfilm, so will need to go back again and look further. There was nothing in the births columns either.

MY brother and i am adopted - i'm the odd one- little bro is spit of my dad, face shape, hair pattern overall shape, everything! Dont take the fact that he looks like his mum to mean anything. Jess x

Please keep us updated - I hope you get the adoption records. Lyndy

When I was a kid I thought my dad looked like his dad, got pictures of grandad when he was older and to this day I swear my dad it the spitting image of him. Dad was adopted when he was 5, no family connection at all. I still think he looks like grandad though!!

I think I would want to know more about the registration procedure. Surely if a baby's birth is registered and is knowlingly false - ie its obvious the parents on the cert are NOT the child's parents - it would be invalid, especially when the real parents are alive and kicking? As you are positive about the family likeness between your partner and his adopted mother, there is no doubt a biological link, but its also possible she could be an aunt or some other relative. Family resemblances are common amongst aunts/nephews, or cousins, or grandmother/grandsons for example. It's certainly a bizarre story and I hope if you find out more you will let us know. Many of the stories on this website disappear as cliffhangers, and I think 'I wonder if they ever found out...' nell

I have been thinking about this all day! Here is a scenario (I'm good at these, I have plenty of practice). Miss Cook becomes pregnant by a Soldier. He promises, somewhat reluctantly, to marry her 'because of the baby'. She gives birth a couple of weeks ahead of your partner's mother and in the same hospital. Miss Cook's baby dies. She gets little sympathy in hospital from either Staff or the other mothers because she is unmarried. She does not tell her father that her baby has died, indeed, does not tell any member of her family, not even the boyfriend. She has to remain in hospital for a fortnight (as was usual in those days) and knows if she goes home without a baby, her chances of marrying the reluctant soldier are over. So she goes home with a baby.(It was easy - she just walked into the unlocked, unsupervised Nursery, where ALL babies spent 23 hours a day, only being taken from the Nursery to be fed - no bedside cribs in those days.) No one is suspicious, why should they be? Her father is rather anxious that the baby is registered immediately because as far as he is concerned, the baby is weeks older than it really is.She doesn't want to register the baby, keeps making excuses, so Grandad goes and does it himself, being a law-abiding citizen. I still think this story is true - why would you tell such a massive lie? Can't be covering up illegitimacy as you say your partner looks so like his mother - even if his father 'knew' that he was not the father, why go through the complicated process of registerig him in a false name and then adopting him. His parents didnt need to do anything other than register him as their child in the first place (and I bet that's happened more times than we know about). This is a fascinating mystery and I would love to know what you find out! Olde Crone

Hi Carol, If he was abducted, surely the police would have been informed. Have you checked with them, the case records should still be in existence. They, together with the adoption file should hold most of the answers. Di from Down Under

Sorry to appear insensitive, but would DNA testing settle this issue once and for all. And whatever happened to the woman who had allegedly abducted him? Brenda

Thank you all for your input. We will definately try and get hold of his adoption file and check the newspapers. Incidentally, Mike is an only child and he definately the son of the person he knew as mother as he is the spitting image of her. I first met Mike 40 years ago, and it was the first thing I noticed. Thank you all once again.

Pat A woman who abducts a baby is usually suffering from Post Natal Depression. She would have registered the baby (or rather, her father did) for the simple reason that rationing was still in force in 1946 and without registration, she could not have got a ration book for the child (maybe her father insisted?). Also, in her mind anyway, she was the mother of this child. A relatively recent abduction case (well, 20 years ago, LOL) was only solved when the abductee attempted to register the child at the age of five months, because she could not get any benefits for the child without producing a birth certificate. As there had been nationwide publicity about this abduction, the Registrar was suspicious and alerted the Police. This story has the ring of truth for me - it would be such an unnecessarily elaborate lie otherwise and the story so far, fits the facts. Abductions from Maternity Units are relatively rare NOW - but back in the 1940s,hospitals just werent 'aware'. I was quite startled recently when visiting the Unit where my two youngest were born, in the late 70s and 80s, to find that the Main Door was locked, intercom access and CCTV camera in operation and the same on the Maternity Ward. It certainly wasnt like that in the 70s and 80s, you could come and go as you pleased, day and night and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to abduct a baby. Olde Crone.

Had Mike's parents any other children? To be honest I have my doubts about the story that he has been told. Firstly if he was born to an unmarried mother by the name of Cook this would explain his entry in Dec 1946 and the fact that his grandfather had registered the birth (this would be very unlikely if someone abducted a baby I do not think they would get their father to register the birth. More than likely he was born in Clutton to a single mother by the name of Cook (there are still some families in this area with this name on the elecotoral roll) and at a later date he was adopted. Perhaps he kept his first name, and for whatever reason (sure it was with the best intentions his adoptive family chose to tell him this story to re-assure him he was theirs). You say his parents had been married for 20 years and his mother was in her forties when they had Mike, this is why I ask if they had other children, they would seem at the time an ideal couple to adopt. Of course I may be wrong, in this case full details would appear in his adoption file, also their would be something in the local newspaper about this abduction. But you have asked for peoples opinions on this matter and to be honest I think the fact he was adopted seems the most likely answer. Hope you find the answers to the questions your looking for. Good Luck. Sheila

Clutton is quite a small village. I wonder if it is worth looking for a baptism at the local church. I worked at Bristol maternity hospital and an abduction would be very unusual. I think it is more likely that he went home with his real mother before being given to his adoptive parents. I have found the Cook family in Somerset in Clutton in my old favourite Somerset Coalfield connections but only 19th century.

Just a thought, If she had abducted the baby, Why would she go to the bother of registering the birth and possibly drawing suspicion to herself? Pat

And of course, there would almost certainly have been a Court Case. Olde Crone