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I am trying to find my half-sister. The details are a bit sketchy so please bear with me. She was born in October 1962 or 1961 in a home for unwed mothers in Lancaster. She had auburn hair. Her adoptive father might have been in the Air Force, but might have either recently left or would be soon leaving. The mother of one of the adoptive parents was either recently dead or very ill and she was going to be named after her but i don't know if Elizabeth was the first or second name. She would have an older brother, possibly named Nigel and around 5 at the time of her birth. I've looked through the birth records using every name I can think of and have found nothing. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Is she a half sister through your mum or dad

If she was through your mum then she would be in mums surname at the time

If through your dad then she would be through the mums name and you would need to know her surname to look for a birth

Any reg will be in the name she was given at birth not the adopted name

As Shirley says, Karen, it's important to know whether she was your father's child or your mother's child.

It seems more likely your father's child, and the problem there is that she most likely would not have been registered in his surname. She might have been, if he agreed to that registration, but that is less common. (In that case she could have been registered in both surnames.)

If she is your father's child, if he is still living, are you in touch with him? That would be the sure way to know what the child's surname was. Since you know of her and know the child was a girl, does the person who gave you that information, if that person is still living and you are in contact, know anything else at all? I guess the person could be your mum who only knows what she heard at the time ...

Assuming the birth was registered in the mother's name....which as she was unmarried, it probably was... go to
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Put the mother's surname in the Surname box and also in the mothers maiden name box. Leave the forenames box empty. Select Lancaster as the district & a wide year range. From the sound of it, you aren't certain exactly when she was born.

If you find a result that has /s or an s at the end of the page number, it indicates the child was adopted. Just because her adoptive parents were going to name her Elizabeth, that does not mean that's the name she was originally registered with.

A copy of the BC can be purchased from https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/ at a cost of £9.25 or £8 if you can order before 12 April while a Pdf pilot trial closes. It wouldn't tell you the name she was given by her adoptive parents, but would give you accurate birth information.

Unfortunately, if you've no idea of the mother's surname, you're up a creek with out the proverbial paddle.

Assuming you do know the mother's name and are a birth relative, add her name to the adoption contact register.
https://www.gov.uk/adoption-records/the-adoption-contact-register
Read the other information on the link - its now possible to hire an intermediary to look for the adopted person and to ask them if they want contact.

Karen, if your birth surname was the one on your account here ... was the child possibly your mum's before her marriage?

Extremely long shot, but does your mum's birth surname start with M?

There is a birth with the M surname in the index in 1961 (not October) and there is no further record of that person (although the birth record does not show as adopted).

sending PM to Karen so we may get some more info in the nearer rather than more distant future :-)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I live in Canada so there will probably be a lag in response time.

She is my mother's daughter. Mom's memories around it are very vague. As you can imagine, it was an ordeal and our minds often block traumatizing experiences. I am trying to help her but I can only do so much. I've searched using the names Mom said she gave her but no luck. Is it possible things were done in such a way as to make it seem that the adopted parents were actually the birth parents?

So far I have had no luck looking through the birth register. I have looked through over 2000 records, checking all the female births in the 4th quarter and have had no luck. They took the birth certificate from Mom and told her she would never see her daughter.

Thanks for letting me know about the s, I did not know about it.

Thanks for the links, I will check them out.

Mom's birth name does not start with M.

I think my next step will be to look through the BMD link posted by Detective then expand my search through other quarters. Mom is unsure of some details so the birth date could be one of them.

Karen, you know what your mum's surname was at the time.

As Detective explained, her birth surname will show as mother's surname no matter what the surname the child was registered in.

That is the key, rather than given names.

Do the search as Detective explained, for reg dist Lancaster, with a range of years like 1959-1964, and your mother's birth surname as the mother's surname.

It sounds like your mum is fairly sure of the time of year, so if that is accurate, the birth would have been registered in the December quarter.

A birth with the surname and mother's surname the same almost always indicates a birth to unmarried parents. Unmarried parents might still have registered the birth in the father's name, but it sounds as if that may not have been likely.

If your mum was married at the time, then technically the birth had to be registered in her husband's surname, but it would not be hugely unusual for a mother not to mention her marriage when the child was not her husband's.

I'm not sure where to go at this point. There is one match from 1959 to 1963, and that is a boy. I've used variations of Procter, Mom's maiden name, and found one possible match except nothing to indicate it was an adoption.

Off topic, but are you LSG JoonieCloonie?

uh oh, LSG? I might be, but I don't know what it is!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSG

:-D


It is curious that of the 12 births in Lancaster 1960-1963 with mother Procter, 9 were boys. Useful for ruling out, though!

One of the girls could be the one if the birth was registered in the father's name, although that seems unlikely.

But wait. December quarter 1961, a female birth with surname spelt -ER and mother's surname spelt -OR.

That is a transcription error by Freebmd. Both are spelt -ER in the index itself (click the eyeglasses beside the entry to see the image). The middle initial has also been left out of the transcription.

Adoption not indicated, but as I understand it that was not an exact science.

Consider that one?

but ... a possible marriage for that name in Lancaster in 1979 ... probably rules that birth out as there is no other likely birth for that marriage.

Haha I see where I went wrong. I read your signature incorrectly. LSG is a group of knitters, crocheted, etc. on Ravelry.com. It stands for lazy, stupid and godless. They don't take themselves too seriously and that is the only place I've seen Hoar used. They call themselves it. LOL Sorry!

I saw the one you mention. Since it seems the adoptive parents were in the Air Force they could have gone a number of places. Perhaps I just need to accept I won't find her.

How was the adoption arranged?

It seems strange that your mother knows so much about the adoptive family. Could there be some family link or perhaps they were known to relatives?

Was the child adopted locally?
Was the adoptive father stationed in an R.A.F. base in the vicinity?
Any additional clues might help.

I wondered that too Gwyn ... and whether, if the family was related, it maybe wasn't a formal adoption, although that seems less likely.

Also, when I reconsidered Karen's reference to the traumatic nature of the events ... I wondered whether the airman might actually have been the biological father ...

I have also looked again at the DecQ 1961 birth I mentioned above and the 1979 marriage for the same name, both in Lancaster. There was also a 1948 birth in Lancaster with the same name and middle initial ... but then there is a 1969 marriage that would match. (I should have checked at Ancestry; Freebmd is not up to date for that period.)

Two people (they have the same surname, one, likely the person in question, seems to have two trees) have the name of the 1961 birth (no middle initial shown) in their trees at this site with dob 1964 in Lancaster. There was no birth with that name in Lancaster 1963-1965 although there was a 1964 birth in Barton.

The only way to be sure of any possibility, one way or the other, is to see the birth certificate.

The GRO will do limited searches. If you were to ask for a birth in Lancaster in 1961, 1962 or 1963, for example, with your mother shown as the mother's name, you might get an answer. I'm not sure whether you would be considered to have enough information for a search. You could specify Dec quarter.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/most_customers_want_to_know.asp#FamilyHistory

'If you are unable to trace or do not have the index reference you may still apply online for any event which took place on or after 1st July 1837 to 6 months from the current date (for marriages this period is extended to 18 months) provided you have sufficient information to identify the entry. A 3 year search for the index reference will be carried out. You should supply the exact date of event if you have it. If you don't have the exact date, enter 01/01/YYYY and we will search the specified year and one year either side. If you do not provide an index reference number, your application will take up to 15 working days to process.'

or you could ask at the local registry office, see 'Lancashire' here (the reg office where the Lancaster records are held)

http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/civreg/RegOffice/RegOffice2#591


(and I will confess to the lazy and godless -- stupid, well hmph!)

Karen, one of our lapsed members (who can't post on the boards at the moment) has sent me some ideas that I will pass on privately.

For info here: has to do with the possibility of the child being born Procter and possibly adopted by a family with the same name, who had a slightly older child with the name you mentioned.

If your mum was not told all the details, and the family relationship was not close, that might be a possibility.

You say they took the birth cert off your mum and said she would never see the baby again. So there is a birth cert it just needs identifying

Does your mum recall what she named the baby??

Probably the only definite is that Mom had a daughter in a home for unwed mothers in Lancaster. Her memories are very fuzzy. I remember her arguing with her brother about the details a few years ago. She is not certain about the employment of the adoptive couple, she could be wrong, and doesn't know how she got the information. She did not want to give her up for adoption, she was not given a choice. She won't admit it but I'm pretty sure she got the full brunt of negative attitude surrounding unwed mothers. That is what I meant by traumatic experience. I've been asking her to write down what she remembers because she might remember more or actually be certain about something but she hasn't yet.

Mom doesn't know how the adoption was arranged. The women who ran the house made the arrangements.

I hadn't thought of the possibility that the adoptive parents might have the same name as Mom. It is worth looking into!

I've got a bit more to add but I'll have to return later to do so. I'll read that message, Joonie.

Quite often when a mum had her baby in a mother and baby home she nursed the baby for six weeks but knowing she probably wouldn't leave the home with her baby if she had no famiiy support

The home would have new parents lined up who wanted to adopt and on the appointed day the baby would be bathed ,fed and dressed and the mum then had her baby taken from her .or she was told she had to leave but her baby stayed

Very cruel treatment and the cost of being a " naughty girl" who got pregnant
No penalty for the male who got her pregnant

Not all black and white too as sometimes the lad wanted to do the right thing but the parents told him to get lost

Very sad all round

Shirley, Mom thinks she named her Shannon or something similar. I agree. For a society that is supposed to care for each other, they certainly had a peculiar way of showing it.

I've considered trying to track down the father to ask if he had ever had contact with her but I don't know if I'm up for that challenge.

I'll look more at those links and the other info you have all provided, thanks so much for your help. I might take a bit of a break until after Easter if anyone else has more info.

There's no birth for a Shannon

One possible for a Sharon but not in Lancaster and not the,same birth month./qtr

Ie an oct birth would be reg in a dec qtr