Military Chat

my nana has always known her father wasn't her biological father and now she is trying to find out who was she has two names linny cain and sid abrams both were in the ardwick barracks Manchester possibly playing in a band with the navy my nanas 72 now and wants closure before its to late she knows sids family use to have a shop on lever street manhester how an you get old navy records my nan was born 1942 in the September this is a longshot I know but want to help my nana both men travelled playing music on ships any help would be very usefull

Welcome to the boards Zoe.

I'm afraid that if a father is not named on you nana's birth certificate then it will be virtually impossible to find out who her biological father was, unless her mother actually told someone in the family (and I suspect they would have passed away by now anyway).

With two names in the frame it wouldn't be fair to persue either of them without any proof of paternity.

Kath. x

Might seem like a silly question, but have you got your grandmother's FULL birth certificate? I'm wondering how much information is on there.....if not a father's name, then was she given several Christian names, sometimes therein lies a clue.

Karen is right. Illegitimate children are often given their father's surname as a middle name. I have seen this quite a few times myself.

Kath. x

I absolutely understand your nana wanting to find this out

since both men would have been born by 1920 or not much later, presumably, the likelihood is that they are both deceased

you also have the problem of the names you are looking for

'Linny' isn't really a name I think; could it be Lenny, for Leonard? (or Linwood or Lindsay ... or something else altogether it was a nickname for)

'Sid' could be Sidney or Sydney ... and if your nana is going from things said, 'Abrams' could maybe be Abrahams or another variation of the name

unfortunately at this point, death records are most likely to provide the most useful information

you would not be able to get access to anyone's WWII military records

for the name

s*dney abra* (so all variations are shown)
born 1915-1925

there are many, many results in the deaths index

for Leonard Cain, not so many, but still 10 or so

does your nan have any idea how old they were?

to prove a relationship, she would need to find another child of the right man who would agree to do DNA testing to show that your nana and that child are or are not related (unless the child knew their father had another child) ... and this would probably be no easy task


by the way I agree that children whose parents were not married were sometimes given their father's surname as a middle name (as my great-aunt was) ... I have a feeling this was a little less common by the 1940s though

and if your nana's mother was concealing the fact that her husband was not your nana's father, this would be all the more unlikely of course

If your great grandma gave birth as a single mother she may have taken the biological father to court for maintenance before she married ...could be worth looking for court records ??