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Hi Helen,

I have read your request for help in finding the Wrights from Melbourn, Cambridgeshire. I must admit that you have a hard job on your hands.

Some years ago, while searching for my gggrandfather Ellis Wright, I conducted a search of the census and Birth, Deaths and Marriages of many English counties close to Norfolk where Ellis was born including Cambridgeshire.

I found that the main family in the Melbourn district of Royston, Cambridgeshire was Andrew Curr Wright, an Independent Church Minister who lived with his wife Ann and only son, also named Andrew Curr Wright. Andrew senior was born in Dundee, Scotland and Andrew junior was born in Melbourn. They lived in the Church Manse in Melbourn.

Andrew senior died in 1872 at the age of 63 which gives his date of birth as c.1809.

Andrew Curr Wright junior married Elizabeth Smithson Wilkerson in quarter ending June 1886. The couple had one daughter Elizabeth Curr Wright born in Melbourn in 1890.

Now comes the "if" and "maybe". There doesn't seem to have been any other Wrights in Melbourn.

IF Elizabeth Curr Wright had a son before her marriage MAYBE that son was the person of whom you are speaking. I think it is well worth checking out. Elizabeth would have been 20 when he was born and considering her religious background may well have been unable to keep the child or, if she did, may have kept his surname when she eventually married.

Hope you don't think that I have been wasting your time with my thoughts.

Best wishes to you and your family,

Fred Wright. [email protected]

hi - not sure if i can help but i thought i'd suggest a couple of things:

firstly you need to confirm that he was definetely adopted - records are currently being moved from the Family Records Centre in London to the National Archives in Kew - might be worth calling them to find out what's happening with adoption records/if they are available on-line and if they go back as far as 1910;

worth looking for a birth in Cambridgeshire in 1910 - there may be too many to purchase but check to see what registration district covers those villages and you might be lucky;

have you got his marriage certificate? what does it show under father's name? how about looking for Mary's birth? if you have her father's name from the marriage cert. it might help you find her father on the 1901 census and that could be a clue as to where she came from etc

happy to help further - email me direct if you wish ([email protected]); i'm adopted too so i appreciate how hard this will be to search

I am at a complete loss with my Wright family tree! All i know is my grandfathers name was THOMAS WRIGHT and he was born in 1910, he married Mary Woolerton in 1935. Thomas died during world war two and had one son, Michael (my father) who doesn't know much as Thomas died when he was only a baby. He lived in Melbourne/Meldreth, Cambridgeshire but I don't know if this was his place of birth also. So far as I know Thomas was also adopted. If anybody has any information at all I would be most truly grateful.