Researching Adoption
Taking a Wider View
Whatever the reasons for an interest in adoption, it is useful to read around the topic by looking at the background history of childhood in this period. The books listed within the Recommended Reading list will prove invaluable, as will the list of recommended websites. The history of childhood can put family events into context and prevent the researcher feeling that events were unusual. It is impossible to take a balanced view of any historical trend or event unless it is put into context, and adoption is inextricably linked with topics like illegitimacy, social trends, legislative changes, the effects of war, and the growth of child welfare awareness.
First of All: Family Sources
This section is particularly aimed at those who wish to research an adoption within their family, whether their own or that of a relative. It should hardly need to be said that one should never research the adoption of a person from any perspective – birth or adoptive family – unless the full consent of those involved is obtained and pressure should never be brought to bear on anyone to give such consent.
One of the best sources of information about an adoption can be family members. When a child is adopted, undoubtedly gossip or at the very least comments will follow, among neighbours, relatives and family friends, and even if the adults of that generation are now gone, their children and grandchildren may have overheard information. Sometimes relatives will remember a flurry of interest and activity – presents being bought for the newcomer, and so on. One of Eleanor’s twins (see Chapter 5), adopted at the age of three, recalled the many welcome presents given her and her twin brother when they became part of their new family. Other relatives may remember such times too, especially children whose natural curiosity over these stranger children would have made them alert to any mention of the new arrivals.
Adoptive parents may have confided the birth name of an adopted child to a relative or family friend, or given adoption papers to them for safe-keeping, so that the adopted child would not accidentally find them. If any records such as civil registration certificates are kept within the family, you can ask to see and possibly copy them, but of course, only with permission of the holder.
Photographs of the people concerned can be studied for clues – sometimes a potential adoptive parent would be sent a small photograph of the child they are being offered. This may have survived and may have useful background details of the child’s original location, especially if they are scanned onto a computer and studied.
Look carefully at all the family archival resources you are offered, and pay particular attention to unusual addresses or letters from places not normally connected with known family; unidentified addresses in address books; photographs of children in unfamiliar or ‘institutional’ settings, etc.; old bank and savings books with regular payments being made into them which are not from family, and so on. They may prove to be blind alleys, but when it comes to adoption and illegitimacy, all possible sources of information should be followed up.
Adopted people may have memories of actually seeing adoption papers or correspondence relating to the adoption. One of Eleanor’s twins went ‘rooting’ when she was eight years old, and discovered her birth surname when she found the twins’ adoption papers in the family bureau. This was later invaluable in beginning the search for birth family and gave her many years to become accustomed to the notion of having a different name, and a different family out there somewhere. Some people come across such documents when clearing the homes of their adoptive parents when they pass away – that may even be the moment when they found out they were adopted. Of course, even in the era of adoption secrecy, some adoptive parents were completely open with their children and told them what they knew about the birth family.
Another word of caution must be noted here, as not all adoptive parents told their children the truth about the birth family. The twins were told many stories by their adoptive mother about their birth family and mother in particular, virtually all of which for whatever reason, proved to be completely without foundation. Sometimes adoptive parents, prompted by their own insecurities, will tell stories designed to deter children from seeking, rather than directly discouraging them or refusing information altogether. These stories could, over time, be transmitted down the generations as fact. Whatever you find out, it must be recorded carefully and in a logical manner so that you can use it to plan your next step.
Finally, as with all family history enquiries, you may reach a point where you have exhausted all avenues and not found the answers you seek. For instance, some single mothers have taken the identity of the father of their child to the grave with them, having revealed his identity to no one. This has to be accepted and respected, and the researcher must turn their attention to other queries. There is nothing else you can do.
Planning Your Research
Once you have exhausted all family sources (including friends of the family and neighbours if appropriate), you can decide what your next step will be. This may depend very much on what dates you are researching. Anything over a hundred years old is likely to be completely open access, so you should be able to go ahead and locate sources without worrying about how you are going to use it.
However, anything under a hundred years old, especially where it contains personal or sensitive details, will almost certainly be restricted. It may be possible to apply to the holder of the records to access them by invoking the Freedom of Information Act 2000. To find out about how to use this act, go to: www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/the-freedom-of-information-act.
If you are enquiring about information held by an organisation about you personally, you need to know about the Data Protection Act 1998. This Act controls how your personal information is used by organisations, businesses and the Government. Organisations are legally required to give you a copy of any information they have on you if you apply for it. There may be a charge for the search, and some sensitive records do have additional safeguards regarding their release.
The most straightforward way to approach any historical research is to make yourself a plan. Keep asking yourself questions – what do you want or need to know next? Have a focus for your enquiry. Enquiries to record repositories stating, ‘I would like to know everything you have about …’ are less likely to be successful than those which are specific in their requirements.
Make a list of all these sources you would like to access and where you are likely to find them. If you are looking for details of an historic adoption over a hundred years old, there are numerous subscription-based websites that you can use. Browse each one carefully before you commit yourself to make sure you are getting the best set of records that you need for your own research.
Note: all records or record groups listed below are placed in alphabetical order for both pre and post 1926, and not in any implied order of relevance. The relevance of any group of records will depend upon the individual research project being undertaken.
Resources for Researching Adoption Before 1926
This list includes not only resources more directly connected with adoption or variations of adoption, but resources that refer to illegitimacy, child poverty and other issues mentioned in this book. Some sources will be relevant to more than one topic. Their relevance is noted in brackets after the title of the resource.
It is notoriously difficult to research adoptions which took place before the 1926 Adoption of Children Act, primarily because there are few formal records and the culture of secrecy surrounding it meant that few records were kept. Persistence is necessary, but avoid making huge ‘leaps of faith’ and making wild guesses.
A number of the sources given below can be found on a huge variety of free-to-access and subscription websites. If you decide to conduct your research through one website that you have to pay to use, take your time to browse the contents carefully. You may well find that record collections, for example, for a particular city such as Manchester, are split across more than one website, so consider purchasing credits if available, rather than paying out for a lengthy subscription.
Census Returns
(Relevance: adoption, fostering, institutions such as children’s homes, orphanages and workhouses; family groups; indicators of social and economic status.)
Those currently available for the period 1851 to 1961 are: 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901 and 1911. The 1921 census will only be released in 2021, after one hundred years have elapsed. Because of assurances given to the population via the 1920 Census Act, it will not be released any earlier. The 1931 Census for England and Wales was completely destroyed in a fire, and the 1941 Census was not taken because the country was at war. The 1881 Census is always available to view online free of charge, at least in transcribed format; sometimes you will have to pay to see digitised images of the census books.
The usual method employed to find a person listed on the census, is a search engine on a website. Most people use a full name to find a person, but it is possible to make searches on most sites by in-putting first/given names only, which is very useful if you do not know what surname an adopted or fostered child had been given. Add to this a date and place of birth and any other sound information you may have, but do not put in speculative information – sometimes the ‘less is more’ approach will give better results. Also, try searching for siblings, grandparents or extended family such as aunts or uncles, if finding the child alone is proving difficult. Use arrow buttons to browse the area around a family address, in case the child has been lodged nearby with neighbours, family friends, foster parents or extended family.
If you are looking for a child who was in an institution, it is useful to know that each institution, be it orphanage, workhouse or hospital, etc., was treated as a household in its own right. The entry will give the manager or head of the institution first, followed by their family if living in, staff, then the inmates. These may be in alphabetical order but this is not always the case, so scan the whole list if looking for siblings or parents. Be aware that as these inmates are not with family but in an impersonal environment. a less than accurate approach may have been taken by the person who filled in the census form with the spellings of names. This may also apply to ages and places of birth. Most of the institutions do not indicate the status of children, such as their legitimacy, but if a child has the same surname as the mother and she is recorded as single, she or he is most likely illegitimate.
The ‘Fertility Census’ included within the 1911 census return can be particularly useful, as it should show how many years a couple have been married, how many live births there have been within the marriage, and how many of their children were still living on the night of the census. Intriguing discrepancies can be spotted, with numbers of children clumsily altered and years of marriage changed to show all children born within marriage when the reality was different.
Location: without doubt, the best way nowadays to access the census returns is on the internet. All the major subscription websites have full coverage of the 1841 to 1911 census returns. However, www.freecen.org.uk is endeavouring to provide free-to-access coverage of the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1891 census returns, but is not yet complete.
Change of Name Records
(Relevance: adopted people, birth and adopted families who wished to formally change either their surname or their forename.)
There was, and still is, nothing to stop anyone calling themselves by whatever name they want, but for those who wanted to make it official, there were special procedures one could use. For those who adopted or took in a child before and even after 1926, it was easy to give the child a new surname and have them known by that at all times; hence the fact that ‘displaced’ children on census returns can sometimes have different names on different census returns.
For such informal changes, there are no official or permanent records other than the ‘accidental’ revelations in the usual family history resources. It is possible that a person who was taken in informally by a family as a child, would wish to officially change their name to that of their host family. Formal changes of surname may also be made by an adopted person who, perhaps, wished to revert to their birth name.
An official change of name was recorded in a Deed Poll and these are kept at the National Archives in Kew. The indexes or any other part of this collection are not available to view online. The records run from 1851 and it is possible to purchase a certified copy of the Deed Poll. From 1914, Deed Poll enrolments were announced in the London Gazette. To search this journal, consult: www.thegazette.co.uk.
However, if an extra fee was not paid to have the Deed Poll ‘enrolled’ in these records, they will not be in the index. The Gazette also published Change of Name Declarations which were necessary from 1939 to 1945, in order to prove your new identity so that National Registration records could be changed and a new registration card and ration book could be issued.
Church Registers
(Relevance: illegitimate children, especially babies; marriages; extended family; birth father.)
Baptism Registers in the Anglican Church from the sixteenth century onwards show clear indications of the legitimacy or otherwise of a baby being baptised. Where there was a possibility of obtaining some form of maintenance payment from the biological father (or the man stated to be the father – it was difficult to prove one way or the other), the name of the father may be stated on the baptism entry. Otherwise, the name of the mother only and the child’s name would be stated, an excellent indication, along with the mother and baby’s surnames being the same, that the child is illegitimate. Up to 1837 and the advent of civil registration of life events, the father in the case of a married couple was all important as the entry was proof of paternity for the purposes of inheritance, so his absence speaks volumes.
After this date, both baptism and birth entries can be consulted in a search for a father’s name.
Marriage Registers: These can be checked to see if the mother of an illegitimate child later married the father, or if she had parted with the child, went on to marry someone else (therefore acquiring a new married name).
Burial Registers: Only babies and young children tend to be listed by their illegitimate status in burial registers, which rarely give any details other than name and date of burial, especially before changes were made to the recording of burials under Rose’s Act, which was passed in 1812.
Location: Local Archives or Diocesan Archives (often on the same site and administered by the secular county archive staff). Large numbers of parish and nonconformist registers are now being uploaded to the internet, mostly on subscription websites such as Ancestry and Findmypast. Check coverage on these websites to see if they have what you need.
Parish registers are also available on CD. It is rare for a place of worship to still hold its historic registers, but a minority do, especially if it is still in use (one parish church in Mid Wales is still using a burial register that holds entries dating from the 1850s and even earlier), or they may have facsimile copies which can be viewed. However, it easier to start online with your enquiry where you can.
(Relevance: illegitimate children; single mothers; infant mortality; maternal mortality; marriage of birth parent/s.)
From 1 July 1837, the civil (i.e., state, not church-run) registration of life events began. Since then, every birth, marriage or death occurring in England and Wales should have been registered. Despite a few teething problems, they mostly were and it is possible to purchase a certified copy of an entry, if you have the correct details to hand.
Problems will arise where a child’s name has been changed since registration (most likely in pre 1926 private adoptions), but equally there are restrictions on who, apart from the adopted person themselves, can access them. The following records are available:
Birth Certificates: the section for birth father’s details will usually be blank for an illegitimate child. Sometimes the middle name of a child will seem to indicate a family surname other than the mother’s – possibly the father – but this must be corroborated from other sources. Be aware that if an illegitimate child prior to 1875 has a father named on the birth certificate, there were no restrictions up to this date for the mother to put any man down as the father. This of course had to be changed because of the obvious turmoil and false accusations it could and did cause.
Marriage Certificates: in the pre 1926 period, it is quite possible for a person who had been adopted, and knew their birth name, to revert back to it at the time of their marriage. This is not uncommon, and seems to represent for some a statement of their individuality and new autonomy as an adult. Occasionally, an illegitimate person will name a father on their marriage certificate, but this must to checked very carefully as it could be instead a close relative or ‘adoptive’ father. Check the names of the witnesses also, as they are usually close relatives, parents or friends of the family.
Location: Local Register Offices for direct application; the General Register Office for all applications for England and Wales. You cannot consult records at the General Register Office. The indexes are widely available online and you are expected to use them to find the details you need to make an application. Go to www.gro.gov.uk to browse their services and how to use them.
(Relevance: illegitimacy; medical records; mental health; single mothers, adoption, fostering; orphanages and other children’s homes; mother and baby homes; hospitals; County Asylums and mental hospitals; Cottage Homes; refuges.)
Many of these institutions were privately owned and run, short-lived, or kept chaotic or incomplete records, and the further back you go, the less likely they are generally to be efficient and extant. These records may be subject to restricted access, as they contain sensitive and personal details about individuals. Contact the relevant archive to ascertain what records have survived, what you may access, and how. You will need to be aware of sensitivities also, as some institutions have been the subject of allegations of ill-treatment of their charges. See also Poor Relief, below.
Records of institutions may include admissions registers, correspondence, medical histories, photographs, case notes, adoption records, accounts, publicity literature, news cuttings and photographs.
Location: for public institutions and some privately run organisations, contact the relevant local archives. However, many children’s homes or orphanages run by independent organisations, such as religious orders, may have kept their own archive, in which case you will need to do some research on the location of the organisation’s head office and approach the organisation direct. Some of the larger charities have their own dedicated staffed archive, in which case you would approach them direct.
Newspapers
(Relevance: reports of child trafficking, baby farming, child-centred charities and campaigning groups, institutions, mother and baby homes, adoption societies, advertisements for babies either to be adopted or looking for a child, contemporary opinions on all issues relating to the subject, parliamentary debates and details of Acts of Parliament, editorials about any aspect of the subject.)
All archives and record offices which specialise in a specific catchment area, such as an historic county boundary, will have a good selection of local newspapers with excellent coverage. However, unless you have a specific article or date in mind, it is not practical for the staff at an archive to undertake extensive searches for you, or if they are willing, you may have to pay a search fee. Many archives have a searchable online catalogue you can browse to obtain a list of what is available, which you can then use as a guide when looking at the growing number of websites where digitised and searchable newspapers are available to view and often to download.
The website www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk has an excellent selection of provincial newspapers and contains many references to the issues discussed in this book. At present the newspapers available cover the dates 1710-1959, but the website is regularly updated with more additions. It is possible to search the website free of charge and view the basic results, but a subscription is required to access the articles.
Other websites which include some newspapers as part of their portfolio of resources are: www.ancestry.co.uk and www.findmypast.co.uk. For national newspapers, The Times Digital Archive 1785–2006 and the Guardian and Observer Digital Archive 1791–2003 offer the best range of articles from national newspapers. These two archives are often provided free of charge to members of local public libraries as part of their online resources; check with your local library to see if they provide this service. For Wales, http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/home has the best online selection of newspapers for this nation, and includes Welsh language newspapers.
Location: for hard copy or microfilm of provincial newspapers, the relevant local archive. For all national newspapers, the British Library has a complete collection. The National Library of Wales – www.llgc.org.uk – has an excellent collection of Welsh newspapers in Welsh or English, also see details of the website above, which is being added to on a regular basis. Otherwise, websites as above.
Poor Law (see also Workhouse, below)
(Relevance: illegitimate children; single mothers; references to biological fathers; maintenance; living standards of paupers; treatment of single mothers and illegitimate children; boarding out/fostering of pauper children; workhouses.)
For the period 1850 to 1948 (when the Poor Laws were finally repealed with the advent of the National Health Service and new social service system), most records of interest will be held at the relevant local record offices. These records may include maintenance orders in connection with the 1845 Bastardy Act, settlement and removal examinations and orders (unlikely to be found after 1900), general correspondence, correspondence regarding the adopting or boarding out of children in the control of the Guardians, and paperwork in connection with boarded out children. There may also be some payments of relief to women with very young families on an out-relief basis, that is, they remained in their own accomodation rather than going into the workhouse.
Settlement and Removal Papers
(Relevance: single mothers, illegitimate children, removal of pregnant women, pauper children, orphans, absconding fathers.)
A legal procedure by which individuals (almost always those claiming poor relief) could be compulsorily removed from a parish to a designated home parish or parish of legal settlement, this parish having a legal obligation to maintain the pauper. Removals were still taking place in the mid-nineteenth century, but the numbers of cases had diminished considerably. May include details of other family members, names of children, and lists of the parishes the person or family group have resided in.
Location: local archives. These records are not widely available online at the present time.
Vaccination Records
(Relevance: illegitimacy; name of mother; address.)
Vaccination of all babies against smallpox was compulsory from 1853 and registers were kept by the local registrar of the progress of the vaccinations. Illegitimate children stand out as having the same name as the mother, but no father’s name recorded. Useful for confirmation of address and can stand as a reasonable substitute for a missing index entry in the civil registers.
Location: local archives. These records are not widely available online at the present time.
Workhouse Records
(Relevance: paupers, illegitimate children, deserted children, foundlings, single parents.)
Workhouses were often used as a safety net by single mothers and their children. The contact may begin when a woman gives birth in the workhouse (perhaps if her family refused to allow her to be at home for the lying in) and may continue until the child or children are older. Sometimes a woman may leave her children in the workhouse while she goes out to work or to look for work.
It is useful to remember that people did not necessarily languish continuously in the workhouse for years on end, but would take advantage of it when hard up or out of work (or possibly deserted by a partner/abandoned by family), so never assume that the one occasion you find them in there was not repeated – check a wider span of dates to be sure. You may find mother and child listed as inmates in a workhouse on the census returns (see also comments on the census, above), where the workhouse will be listed as one complete “household”.
Other surviving records may include:
- Admissions books (which will give details such as age, parish of origin, and occupation for an adult, with less detail for a child)
- Discharge books
- records of births and deaths which occurred in the workhouse (after 1837, copies of birth and death certificates can be obtained from the General Register Office in the absence of birth and death records for the workhouse)
- local newspapers (for general stories and background)
- visual resources – photographs, plans, maps and sketches (for impressions of the buildings and facilities)
Location: Originals are usually housed at the local archives or county record office. You may find that the workhouse records, general poor relief records, and vaccination records are kept together. Some workhouse records are now available online via subscription websites such as www.findmypast.co.uk, and much general information of note can be found on Peter Higginbotham’s excellent website www.workhouses.org.uk. This website is free to access. The survival rates of workhouse records can be very variable, always check before planning a visit to the records office.
Resources for Researching Adoption After 1926
For those who wish to research adoptions from the very recent past, such as their own, one of the most important factors to remember, especially where one or more of the key individuals involved is still alive, is to be aware of the sensitivities of the situation. There are, of course, some adopted people who have no feelings on the subject either way – or they may not think they do, until the subject is raised. Other people are very sensitive about the subject and may need additional support if they are to explore the issues raised by their own, or their child’s, adoption. If you are in any doubt as to how to begin this search, or you are an adopted person who wishes to make contact with your birth relatives, you are strongly urged to contact the relevant authorities listed below.
Another word of caution, especially if you are researching the adoption of a close family relative or your own adoption: once you have found out the facts, you can never ‘un-know’ them; they are with you forever. Think carefully before you proceed. Are you as prepared as you can be for all eventualities, both factual and emotional? Do you have support from family, professionals and agencies as appropriate? (All those adopted before 1975 must have compulsory counselling before they access their records, in any case.) This may not apply to adoptions before living memory, but finding out about later adoptions if those involved are still living, can be life-changing.
Take your time, take one step at a time, and if at any point in the process you need to pause or stop completely, do so. Never lose control of the search, especially if you are the adopted person or birth parent. Do not be pressurised by other people into starting or continuing the search. Be kind to yourself at all times.
Undoubtedly, one of the key websites for anyone requiring basic information about institutions, organisations and people connected with adoption in the twentieth century, is www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk. It offers comprehensive information about locating adoption records, looking for information about mother and baby homes, your rights regarding contact, and much more relating to adoptions up to 30 December 2005. This is an active website which is often updated, so check back regularly if you are searching for information. It also offers advice and support for those who are planning to make contact with birth or adoptive relatives, and also offers advice for those who do not wish to have contact – bearing in mind, of course, that no one is obliged to have contact with anyone should they not wish to.
The website also has a superb page giving advice on using social networking websites for your research and in particular for making contact with birth or adoptive relatives: www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk/contact/socialnetworking and you are strongly urged to read this before you use such websites as part of your research, whether it is purely adoption-related or of a wider, family history nature.
Change of Name Records
(See the entry for this subject in the pre 1926 resources, above.)
Church Records
Most of the comments for the church records from the previous section apply here. In addition, the 1958 Adoption Act changed the wording of the baptism entry of an adopted child to show ‘Adopted son or daughter of …’ whereas previously adoptive parents had asked for their child to be recorded as their natural child. This applies to the registers of the Church of England.
Civil Registration
(Relevance: details of birth family/parent, addresses, death details, adoption details.)
Adoption Certificates: the Adoptions Section of the General Register Office is based at their headquarters in Southport, Lancashire. Any legally adopted person over the age of 18 may have access to their birth records, and order a copy of their original birth certificate from this centre (births in England and Wales only).
Obviously, to order a certificate you must have some details of your birth identity; if you do not, you may apply to find out what records there are. The web page www.gov.uk/adoption-records has downloadable forms you can use to apply for access to birth records for England and Wales and also gives the address of the Adoptions Section of the General Register Office in Southport.
The General Register Office also holds the Adoption Contact Register. You can apply to have your name and contact details put on this if you are searching for contact with the adoptive or birth family; alternatively, you can add your name if you do not wish to have any contact. If other relatives have added their names to the list or do so in the future, you will be informed of this if they are seeking contact.
As a word of encouragement, just because relatives have not added their names to the contact register does not mean they are not interested or receptive to the idea of contact – they may not be aware the register exists. Therefore, do not be too downhearted if your relatives are not there. However, as always, proceed with caution and utilise all professional help as appropriate.
You cannot view any adoption indexes or registers online, for obvious reasons of confidentiality.
Short Birth Certificates: these were introduced to conceal the fact of the adoption and ensure discretion for the adoptive child and their family, but they do reveal the adoption in subtle ways. It will have been issued by the Registrar General, not a local Superintendant Registrar, and instead of the normal volume and page number (or National Health Service Number after 1939), it will have the serial number for the relevant entry in the Adopted Children Register.
A full, adoptive birth certificate was issued by the Registrar General after the court proceedings and shows the following: the date and court of the order, the child’s new adoptive forename/s and surname which was legal from the date of the order, the gender of the child, and the name, surname, occupations and address of the adoptive parents. If issued after 1950, it will also show country of birth.
If you are the adopted person and do not know anything about your background, you may apply to see your original birth entry. If you were adopted before 12 November 1975, you must have compulsory counselling to ascertain if you are able to proceed with the request. If you know your original birth details there is nothing to stop you sending for your original birth certificate like any other.
Marriage Certificates: Unless the adopted person has formally changed their name from that on the adoption paperwork, their name on a marriage certificate will be their adoptive name/s.
Birth Certificates other than adoptive: Where an adopted person has had children, their names as parents will most likely be recorded as their adopted names unless they made a conscious decision to reclaim and use their birth name.
Electoral Registers
(Relevance: locations of individuals; lists of voters at a given address.) Electoral Registers are available in any local authority and more than likely in large local libraries and archives. There are commercial websites which provide searchable databases of the registers, such as www.192.com, but they can be expensive to use. Bear in mind that individuals can request to remain private and you may not find them on the registers as a result.
Medical Records
(Relevance: personal details, possible references to adoption, fostering, birth family details.)
Sometimes, the personal records of an adopted person contain hints as to the adoption and its background. One young man adopted in the 1950s sneaked a look at his GP notes when his doctor stepped out of the room for a moment and saw a list of his foster homes and other notes, including the reason he had been adopted in the first place.
Under the 1998 Data Protection Act, you have a right to access any records kept by the NHS about you. You can apply to your GP, a hospital if it is known, and patient services manager, making what is known as a ‘Subject Access Request’. Try to give the provider as accurate an idea of the dates of the events you are asking about to help them with their search, especially if you are trying to access hospital records. The provider will then consider your request and let you know if they have approved it. You should receive a response in approximately three weeks. Be aware that everyone’s personal medical records will be different and you are not guaranteed to find the answers to your questions even if you go ahead with such a request.
Should you wish to access the records of a deceased person, bear in mind that GP records are destroyed after ten years. Also, under the Access to Health Records Act 1990, you may only access these records if you are a personal representative, an executor, or someone who has a claim resulting from the death (who could be a relative or another person). Contact the deceased person’s GP to find out where the records have been transferred to in order to proceed with the application. You may have to pay a fee for this service.
(Relevance: confirmation of whereabouts/addresses; people at one address; names; marital status, occupation.)
The National Registration of 1939 was based on the general structure of what would have been the 1941 census return, and is often referred to as a quasi census because of this. However, it is very expensive to access (£42 per enquiry at the time of writing, which is non-refundable even if the search is unsuccessful), and restricting in what it gives by way of information. It could, however, be useful to find out the whereabouts of evacuated people of all ages. Only information about persons who are now deceased will be released.
Location: These records are held by the Health and Social Care Information Centre in Southport. They are not available for the public to view, or browse, in person, only postal applications will be accepted. For a summary and to find out how to access information, go to www.hscic.gov.uk/register-service. However, www.findmypast.co.uk are in the process of digitising these records and at the time of writing, plan to have them available online by approximately 2015/16. For updates on this project, you can register an interest here: www.1939register.co.uk.
Newspapers
In the case of newspapers, all comments in the pre-1926 selection of sources apply to post 1926 newspapers. However, there may be more local newspapers available in the twentieth century, with more photographs. The local archive will be able to advise.
Other Sources
Evacuees: In recent years there has been keen interest in the lives of children who were evacuated at the beginning of World War Two. There are plenty of websites with informative autobiographical accounts, general social history books and many evocative visual resources. These would be a good place to start research on this subject, especially local histories if the destination of an evacuated child is known.
Local archives may have records relating to evacuation, but the quantity, quality and survival rates will vary greatly. Some will refer to children by name and others do not. Not all records will be available for inspection.
A search on the website using the key word ‘evacuees’ www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a will give you a list of archives which could have records of interest. These may include:
• Requisition documents relating to properties to be used as billets
• School records: school log books, and admissions registers
• Lists/registers of evacuees which may include names, ages, general comments, where from, sometimes includes identities of mothers evacuated with their babies or very young children
• Lists of billets and the householders, sometimes with names of children placed there
• Lists of equipment available for loan to householders with evacuees, such as beds and bedding, cots, kitchen equipment, chairs, and so on
• Lists of children, teachers and helpers from one particular destination
• Newspaper cuttings
• Accounts books
• Personal papers such as letters
• Autobiographical accounts
• Video and audio sources such as oral history interviews, home movie footage and newsreel footage
• Official papers such as Home Office circulars
• WVS (Women’s Voluntary Service) papers such as minute books giving details of billets, etc.
• Hospital and other medical and sick bay records.
Be aware that some records, such as those for schools and hospitals, and lists of evacuees giving personal details, may be closed for reasons of privacy. Contact the relevant archive for more details.
Kindertransport Children: Most of the records for the children who came over on the Kindertransport are maintained by World Jewish Relief, the organisation which played a substantial role in bringing the children to Great Britain. Copies of the records for individual ‘kind’ can be supplied to family members on the payment of a small fee to cover administrative costs, and on production of authorised documentation. They are based at Oscar Joseph House, 54 Crewys Road, London, NW2 2AD. Tel. 020 8736 1250. Website: www.wjr.org.uk.
Mass Observation: This has been placed in ‘other’ records as it did not generate records specific to adoption, but does provide a fascinating background to people’s thoughts and opinions during its heyday from 1937 to 1950. However, the project continues and has regular ‘Mass Observation Days’ where the public can submit a diary for a specified day to the archive. The diaries, reports and other documents it generated are now archived at the University of Sussex in their Special Collections section. You can visit the archive and do research on it in person.
You can explore the ‘Mass Obs’, as it is affectionately known, at: www.massobs.org.uk. Also, many of the earlier diaries have been digitised and put online at: www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk/index.aspx and can be searched for specific topics or key words. You will need a subscription to access this latter website.
New Regulations – November 2014
New Government rules due to come into force by November 2014 will enable all relatives of adopted adults, such as children and grandchildren, to find out about their birth family, with particular reference to inherited medical conditions. They will also assist with contacting birth family through intermediary services. However, safeguards will also be in place to protect the private family life of adopted people and the adopted person’s consent must be obtained before contact or the sharing of information is facilitated. The relevant press release can be consulted here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/relatives-of-adopted-adults-now-able-to-trace-family-tree. Only time will tell what the impact of this change will be, how easy it will be to access the birth family information, and how wide ranging that information can be. Researchers from both birth and adoptive families are strongly advised to make extensive enquiries about the new rules before going forward, so that they fully understand the implications for themselves and others.