It says "ADOPTED" on birth cert - is there anyway of finding out real father?

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angela35
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Last seen: 9 years 17 weeks ago
Joined: Wednesday, 15-06-2011

My cousin has the words "adopted by ******** which was his Mum's 2nd husband, instead of real fathers name. Is there any way of finding out his real name ? His Aunt told him his dad's name some years later but it's a very common name so wanted to check for more information. Would the GRO have such records

This all happened in 1930, Atcham.

Michael J Hulme
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Joined: Saturday, 4-06-2011

Hello Angela

I have a similar situation in part of my family and whilst I know almost everything about the child through to adulthood and death (I visited his grave earlier today) the one thing I don't know for sure is the identity of his father.

The birth of the child will have been registered in the normal way soon after birth but this was most likely done by the biological mother and will not include the name of the father unless he was present when the birth was registered and agreed that he was the father but of course you need the birth name to search for this.

At some time later, which may have been weeks, months or even several years, the child will have been formally adopted at which time a new birth certificate will have been issued showing the child's new name.

See the Directgov web site for information about obtaining the original birth certificate.

You mention that the birth was at Atcham. If this is shown as the Registration District you should note that the registration district included the town of Shrewsbury and quite a lot of the rural area to the west.

Mike

MarkCDodd
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Last seen: 11 years 19 weeks ago
Joined: Saturday, 4-06-2011

The indexes will have a hand written forward referal. In other words, if you went to the original G.R.O. index page there will be an asterix or similar next to the original entry. Elsehwhere on the page there will be a referal to the index entry for the certificate with the adoption information. Unfortunately they do not do backwards referal to the original index entry.

angela35
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Last seen: 9 years 17 weeks ago
Joined: Wednesday, 15-06-2011

Many thanks Mike and Mark for your replies. I will look into that.