A DNA question that concerns a friend not me

[Margaret in Burton]

My friends husband recently had his DNA done via Ancestry. His situation is complicated. He thought he was adopted but now we realise he wasn’t, he was brought up in a family group home in the North East by a couple he thought were his adoptive parents but now realises they were just council employees. He feels his whole life has been a lie. He grew up with their surname as his, so has no idea what his real name was.
His DNA profile, which I haven’t seen myself, shows Scandinavian, Scottish/Irish and south of England Ancestry. Apparently it tells him he has two connections in the 1920’s who emigrated to Australia. He wasn’t born until 1954.

Any advise please? I know nothing about DNA. I do have an Ancestry sub which my friend doesn’t have.

There should be some records for this 'home' and also a social services file on children there surely.

Marg, you refer to it as a 'family group home' I haven't heard that expression before. Where did you hear that, from your friend's husband?

I just found this so I now understand.

https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000350

I think the starting point might be finding records of the home.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...children-care/

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by maggie_4_7

There should be some records for this 'home' and also a social services file on children there surely.

Marg, you refer to it as a 'family group home' I haven't heard that expression before. Where did you hear that, from your friend's husband?

I just found this so I now understand.

https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000350

I think the starting point might be finding records of the home.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/h...children-care/

I’ve been in touch with the local council for the area. The trouble is, they want his name to search under. He doesn’t know it. He knows the name he went to school under and the name he joined the army as but that was the surname of the couple who ran the home. They’d told him they weren’t his birth parents but lead him to believe they’d adopted him. Everytime he asked any questions about his birth family he was told to shut up. He was encouraged to join the forces at 16 and now realises that was because he would have to leave being ‘in care’ at that age.

[Olde Crone]

I am sure he would have had to show a birth certificate when he joined up at 16. How did he get around that?

OC

Edited to say - the council are being obstructive, surprise surprise. They will have a record of the people who brought him up as they employed them and that ought to lead to the names of the children they were responsible for.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

I am sure he would have had to show a birth certificate when he joined up at 16. How did he get around that?

OC

Edited to say - the council are being obstructive, surprise surprise. They will have a record of the people who brought him up as they employed them and that ought to lead to the names of the children they were responsible for.

OC

His “adopted father” produced a “birth cert” in another name he’d never heard of. Said it was him. It also gave a date of birth with two dates (either side of midnight maybe”.
He says it looked dodgy and he doesn’t know how the army accepted it. At the moment through various house moves he’s misplaced it.

I can say that no person of that name was born at that time in England, Wales or Scotland

[kiterunner]

Marg, did he ever check the GRO adoption index (at Birmingham library, or elsewhere) in case the "birth cert" was a short form adoption cert?

I wouldn't put too much credence in ancestry's "ethnicity estimate" and it would probably be quite difficult to figure out how he is related to the two Australians until he has a name (for himself) to go on.

[Margaret in Burton]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

Marg, did he ever check the GRO adoption index (at Birmingham library, or elsewhere) in case the "birth cert" was a short form adoption cert?

I wouldn't put too much credence in ancestry's "ethnicity estimate" and it would probably be quite difficult to figure out how he is related to the two Australians until he has a name (for himself) to go on.

No I don’t think so Kate.

We have a problem in that most of my communication is with his wife, he has been quite ill over the last few years, heart attack and stroke. This revelelation has hit him for six so to speak so his wife and I are trying to find out as much as we can without exacerbating his illness.

Plus, it looks like he wasn’t actually adopted. They just pretended he was for some unknown reason.

[Margaret in Burton]

Kate

Can anyone check the adoption register i.e., me for him or does it have to be him.

[kiterunner]

Marg, as far as I know, anyone can check the GRO adoption index at certain large libraries including Birmingham library, and can order a copy of an adoption certificate if they find an entry in the index. (The adoption certificate would show the adopted name and who adopted him, but not his birth name or birth parents' names.)

I know that the couple who brought him up don't seem to have adopted him, but it could be that he was adopted by someone else before he came to them.

This link lists the libraries which have the indexes:
https://www.gov.uk/research-family-history

[Margaret in Burton]

Thank you Kate. I’ll pass that information on