Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know what information could be obtained about an adoption which occurred around 1890?
I am helping someone whose grandfather was adopted. In the 1891 census he is a 3yo "boarder" but by the 1901 census he had been adopted by the same family... (the census says relationship adopted son).
Very little is known about his birth parents, we haven't managed to trace his mother in any census, birth, marriage or death records. His father was on a 1881 census, but haven't found him earlier or later.
I wondered if the adoption papers (if available) would shed any more light on his birth parents, or what happened in the early years when presumably someone was paying for him to be a "boarder" at this family. (It wasn't a school or institution, it was a normal family).

Does anyone have any experience of this? My friend is visiting the National Archives tomorrow.

thanks for any suggestions.

adopted , in those days, usually meant ''one we treat as our own''

There will unlikely to be any official paperwork to be had- formal adoption didnt happen until much later

Adoption didn't exist until 1926 or 1927 (I can't remember which!) so he wasn't adopted and there will be no adoption papers.

Don't know what area this is, but you could run his name past salvation army etc and other local organisations. His fostering could have been arranged by an organisation.

ok ... understood! Thanks for your posts.

What is his birth name - you may be able to find a cert. Most "adoptions" were by family members or friends.