Читать книгу Collins Tracing Your Scottish Family History - Ryan Tubridy, Anthony Adolph - Страница 63

Many children used to be fostered or adopted unofficially, without written records. The only clue you may have is not being able to find the child’s birth registered under the names it grew up with – but you will seldom know for sure.

Nowadays, two men who think they are related through the male line (sharing the same father-to-father genealogical connection, often suggested by sharing the same surname) can have a DNA test. Their Y-chromosome signatures should be virtually identical. If they’re not, this could be due to an illegitimacy, or act of infidelity somewhere back in the family tree, or an undisclosed adoption.

Since 1930, adoption has been organized and recorded by the state. The child’s original birth entry will be stamped to indicate that adoption had taken place, but the child’s new identity will not appear. The child’s new birth certificate, issued at the time of adoption, will be in the Adopted Children Register, though this will not show the original identity. The GROS will only reveal the link between new and old identities to adoptees aged 17 or over or to a local authority providing counselling. The record will also state the date of the adoption order and the sheriff’s court in which the order was made. Adoptees can then apply for copies of these otherwise secret sections of the records. The amount of detail will vary considerably, but if the records reveal that an adoption agency was involved, you can contact them, as in some cases they may still know where one or both of the natural parents are now.

If the adopted person has died, their next of kin may write to any sheriff’s court in Scotland and request access to the deceased person’s details. The sheriff will decide the case depending on merit. Increasingly, permission is being granted for genealogical interest, although medical reasons are a surer way of securing a positive outcome.

Birthlink (21 Castle Street, Edinburgh, EH2 3DN, 0131 225 6441, www.birthlink.org.uk) offers counselling and help to families affected by adoption. It maintains an Adoption Contact Register, whereby adopted children, or families from whom a child was adopted, can register their whereabouts and willingness to be contacted by relatives. See Search Guide for Adopted People in Scotland (Family Care, 1997) and the Birthlink website for more information on this sensitive subject.