Genealogy Chat

My gt grandmother was born, she believed on 4th apr 1918. Her name was Ellen (known as Nellie) Hetherington. The surname was that of her "adopted" parents.
Apparently she was daughter of a well to do american lady who was married to a local farmer. He went away to war, and she got pregnant in the meantime. Isabel Hethington apparently looked after several nurse children, Ellen's mother left her with Isabel when she was a few weeks old, said she would be back in a few days and was never seen again.
When Isabel died in about 1960, amongst her things was a birth certificate for an Ellen, born 1917 in Longtown, Carlisle, mothers name Wear. This would seem to fit, except that the birth date didnt tie with when my nana thought she was born.
I am trying to find out where this cert has ended up.. I can find no bmd record for this. Apparently my gt aunt went to the record office in carlisle for another copy and they couldnt find it either.

The other info that has been passed down is that apparently Ellen's real mother officially opened the working mens club in Parton, Cumbria and so presumably had some standing in the community.

Also, apparently Ellen once went to see the Kinsella's in Whitehaven (same name as the fruit and veg place in the market I presume) who were relatives of her mother's husband (the one that was away at war) they were not at all pleased to see her and told her to get lost and never to come back.

Any ideas on the way forward would be great, my gt nana unfortunately died in 2003, but my nana and her 5 sisters would still be very interested in knowing her origins.