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Can anyone suggest how I can find my Aunt who was adopted shortly after birth. She was born on 9/10/1927 and baptised Joan - after the death of her mother in Birmingham England. I contacted someone last year - a Govt dept. I think, and they said they couldn't help as it was too long ago and Churches were often involved at that time.
New Aussie

Have you looked on search trees to see if she is in anyone's tree

https://www.adoptionsearchreunion.org.uk/search/dap

Have a read of the contents in the link above,

Also the fomal legal process didnt occur in England/Wales till Jan 1927,the process was very different,so very little paperwork was involved and certainly not indepth as of todays procedure.All it took was a signature from the birth parent.(often given without knowing what they were signing up to) and a court application for approval.Until 1980s adopted children had no rights of access to their birth name.
The ACR does exsist from 1927 but does not reveal any details of pre-adoption and a very scant entry was made..

Hello Heather and welcome to the Community boards.




(I'll let Heather know how to find her replies) :-)

Thankyou everyone for your help. Cynthia kindly let me know what to do as I am a complete novice at notice boards, although I have been doing family tree research for many years. Yes Shirley I have looked on trees etc, but I presume she has a new name now. My best bet seems to be if anyone has a female relative with that birth date, as it seems unlikely that I will be able to trace her by the paperwork. My mother said she remembers a big black car coming to take the baby away (she was 8) but nothing else. Heather

Heather, if she or one of her family do put her in a tree here, it would likely be under her birth name if they were interested in her birth family

so check back periodically just in case someone does do that

or if someone includes relations of yours in their tree (like your grandmother who was Joan's mother?) and you don't recognize the tree owner, you could enquire about the connection

also, put Joan and her mother in your tree so others searching could find you

you can also go to http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl
and put a postem on her birth record saying you are a family member and would like to contact Joan or her family, and leave an email address there (best is a permanent free anonymous online account like at Gmail)

and again that way if anyone looks for her birth record they will find you

Thank you Kay - a very interesting load of info. I have sent off an email in the Midlands so I'll have to wait and see what comes back.