Genealogy Chat

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

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!!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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 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

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.

Good gracious! Just my opinion of course...but I think imaginations are running riot here!!! I think OP should take a step back and consider the provable facts. If her OH was adopted, there should be documentation, which she should research before jumping to any other conclusions.

Quite right Susan. This genealogy lark certainly generates a vivid imagination. We are going to try and get hold of his adoption records, that should put things into persepective.

Hi Again Carol, Has Mike got a copy of his 'adoption cert', not his new one the one that his mother would have had? The cert, that you have sent of for is his 'orignal cert', and the one in the name he has now is his 'adoption'cert. If he was adopted then the original adoption cert, his mother would have had, would have had a date on approx 6 months after they took legal gaurdianship. Most people believe that they have been adopted a birth, but this is not the case, after you have been placed with the adoptive parents you have got to wait normally 6 months for the courts to grant the adoption then a new cert will be issued in your new name. Playing devils avocate here, its possible that a woman named Cook had been through a traumatic time in the war, for whatever reason abducted Mike, and after he was found was commited to a mental asylum (however, you have searched newspapers for a 6 week span around this time and found nothing) I do not think the hospital could cover this up, if a police report had been filed. I am with Kay on this one and as I mentioned before, still feel that it is nore likely Mike, was born in Clutton to a Miss Cook (dont forget there were a lot of war time babies born then, and adopted 2 weeks later by his parents. They were certainly not too old to adopt then, in my family there are several adoptions where parents are in their 40's, you mention they had been married for 20 years before and Mike has no siblings it seems too much of a coincedence that after 20 years she gave birth to her son, had him abducted and they had to apply to adopt him (you would be amazed at the lengths adoptive parents would go to, to do what they see is protect their child from the truth). I hope my thoughts or opinions do not offend Mike but I can see this story from both sides of the fence. Unfortunatly you may have a problem getting access to adoption records as even mine from the 60's were hard to find and you looking at a time or turmoil just after the war. I hope you do find them and get some answers to your questions but don't pin all your hopes on these for all the information as most only hold very basic info, from this time not like ones that are done today. Is there no alive from the family who could be of any help to you both with this search? I wish you all the Best of Luck with this search. Sheila

Here's another angle........ Could Miss Cook be a relation of the couple who brought Mike up? Maybe Miss Cook had her baby and the birth was registered by her father because she was not well enough to do it. Then because of post natal depression (or some other cause) she was put in an institution and couldn't look after her baby, which was then adopted by Mike's parents. If Miss Cook was a relation that would explain a likeness between Mike and his mother........ The abduction story might have been constructed to hide the fact that the biological mother had a mental health problem.... Hmmmm.......I haven't really even convinced myself......just another possiblility.... Good Luck - I really hope you are able to trace the adoption records and can get t the bottom of this mystery. I have searched The Times newspaper archive til I'm blue in the face, looking for any clues. But shortly after the war, if there WAS a child abduction, I doubt it would be considered as newsworthy as it would do today.......... Best Wishes Merry

Hi everyone i am helping a guy at the moment Old Crone may recall he wasnt allowed to have his own birth cert untill he had his adoption papers. He now has them and he has been sent his birth cert, so i am wondering how Mike got his without Adoption papers. The guy i am helping now has his mums name an address were he was born and an address were his mother was living so he has some leads now. Colette

Hi, Carol. If you have the birth cert - does it give the exact place of birth? I was born in '39 at home, as were my brother and all my younger cousins. Babies were delivered by midwives. Despite the fact that my mother had problems giving birth - a couple of still births that I know about - she still remained at home with her mother in attendance. My aunt must have been 40 or so when she had her last child in about 1950, and she had a home birth. I think that the NHS started in 1948. and even then most hospitals were 'cottage' type. with GPs in attendance. So. if Mike was born in a hospital, it must have been unusual. Either the mother was in her 40s, or if younger may have had some health problem. Just thought I'd mention this. Anne X

Hi Collette, Its possible to oder your original birth cert, before your adoption papers come through if you know your birth name, you can order direct from GRO Southport or as in my case from the local registry office though a lot insist you oder from Southport. E.mail me direct if you need a h and tracing his birth family, Good Luck. What Anne says is correct although you may need to check out the address as even hospitals are not always down as hospitals quite often the appear under the street and number only. The woman who reigstered him did she have an unusual first name or middle intial he could try finding a marriage for her after the birth. Sheila

I was born at Bristol Maternity Hospital in 1943 and my brother in 1944 as far as I know my mother had no medical problems. The address on my birth cert is 50 Southwell Street though in the 1950's it had moved near to the Downs in Bristol.

Before the National Health Act, women could pay a small sum to have their baby in a Hospital - it was something like 2 guineas per confinement. My own mother did this for my birth - and my mother was only 19 when she had me. I think my parents saw it as a sort of middle-class thing to do - my mother had no health problems. As I said before, this story has the ring of truth to me. Once a child has been registered, however wrongly, the Registrar CANNOT change that entry, other than by an amendment in the Corrections Book. That amendment will appear against the ORIGINAL entry as a reference number. It should also be shown on the ORIGINAL Birth Certificate. If you send for the Certificate you have found, for the Michael registered to Miss Cook, stating that it must have an amendment number on it, and they don't send it to you, then you will at least know that Miss Cook and her son Michael are innocent members of the Public, and nothing to do with your partner.(I hope that makes sense). Does no-one else remember the case 20 odd years ago, of the child who was taken from a Maternity Hospital and was missing for five or six months? When the child was eventually found, the real parents had to go through the formality of adopting her in their own name. It was merely a formality and was rushed through the Courts. It is of course illegal to falsify information to a Registrar - but that pales into insignificance against the crime of abducting a baby, and does not make the original, wrong, registration disappear. And I still think Grandad Cook was innocent - why on earth would he want a stolen child, to replace an already illegitimate child? Olde Crone