No Records.

mamafi · 12-10-2012 7:55am #1

Can anyone give me any ideas on what happened my hubbys brother. The sw told hubby that one of the children that his bm had was adpopted but there are no records of this adoption. Anyone got any ideas about what could have happened:rolleyes:

gfmason · 12-10-2012 2:20pm

There could be any number of reasons. Prior to the 1952 Adoption Act there would have been 'de facto' adoptions which meant the child would be fostered out to parents long term but the parents would have no rights over the child. We are coming across hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal adoptions whereby the child was just handed over to parents who raised them as their own or we have instances were the adoptive parents names were put on the child's birth cert so the child would never know it had been adopted until circumstances dictate the truth coming out (i.e. medical reasons, blood tests). Have you contacted the Adoption Authority of Ireland to ask them to look into the matter and confirm if an adoption order was granted? Alternatively, there are support groups out there who can give you advice - www.adoptionrightsalliance.com would be one of them. On Facebook there is Adoption Rights Alliane and also Adoption Support Network of Ireland both groups have adopted adults, birth parents, adoptive parents and you could post there. We help each other and there will always be someone who can give you good advice about where to go from here.

mamafi · 12-10-2012 2:45pm

Thanks gfmason,
the adoption took place after 1960 ,that much we know .We will check out the facebook pages as suggested.

Equality · 13-10-2012 1:29pm

Your husband should look for all records held by the SW, as there is probably some written reference to the adoption in these records. If he can get access to the records he will have more information.

aujopimur · 13-10-2012 2:29pm

In my case my brothers birth cert gives the correct details ie DOB (1944), place (Bessboro Cork), and mothers name. that's the only information I have, where do I go from here?.

rinsjwind · 14-10-2012 12:17am

Hi Mamafi

Good to hear its going well so far with de brudder : -).

With de udder brudder, you need more data! If they know he exists and was adopted then they must have some information? If there are no records of an Irish adoption then he was either adopted outside Ireland or informally/illegaly adopted here (both distinct possibilities if it was the sixties!) if you know how old he is, you should be able to find his birth cert (see de trace guides on here) but after that it depends on which of the above happened. There is also the possibility, and I really really hate to bring this up, that he died between placement for adoption and the adoption going through, this was very rare but it did, unfortunately, happen.

One other possibility, the agency you are dealing with will only have records of the adoptions handled by them (or agencies that they took over) but the AAI has a record of all Irish adoptions and it would be no harm to give them a call, No is 01-2309300, just to make sure another agency doesn't have him. And finally, a bit of a long shot; I think they also accept applications for their contact register from Irish born people who were adopted overseas or were "illegally" adopted,

BTW, these "illegal adoptions" weren't adoptions at all, what is usually being referred to are illegal registrations in the birth register, which obviously have no legal standing as giving false information to a registrar of births was and still is a criminal offence while adoption has, by definition, legal status. This raises all sorts of complicated legal and ethical difficulties e.g. does a person "adopted" this way get to keep the farm/house/lurury yacht etc that they inherited from their deceased "parents" and what do you do if they have no idea that they are "adopted) which is far more likely, for obvious reasons, in these cases. Anyway, tangent over, sorry!

Good luck.
Rins

mamafi · 14-10-2012 8:26am

Hi rinsjwind,
Yes thank god so far so good things going great with the brother. Cannot get over how alike they look in the photo so the next big step is the meeting which is to take place in 2 weeks..I am so nervous for them both....fingers crossed. Our eldest boy read the letter for here and said that he sounds like a really nice man from the letter so thats a good sign..(our eldest is nearly 20).By the way just to freak you out. my hubby picked our eldest boys name and it just so happens that it was the same name hubbys bm gave him when he was born...
Now the missing brother, It turns out that hubbys mam had more than 3 kids 1 was stillborn 1 was kept and the others were adopted.It is the hse that is dealing with this and they have giving us names and years for the births of the others so does that still mean that if it was an adoption in America that they would have no record of it. The sw has a way of getting in contact with everyone else.

rinsjwind · 14-10-2012 10:54pm

Hi Mamafi

Yeah, the actual adoptions were done in the US so any records will be over there. Worse still, each of the 50 States has its own adoption system, some of which, believe it or not, make the Irish one look modern and progressive! so it can be very difficult to trace these adoptees. The HSE will probably try to find out where he went or an adoptive name but sometimes the info just isn't there. The AAI might be able to advise you and as I said I'm fairly sure they accept applications to join their contact register (see http://www.aai.gov.ie/index.php/information-a-tracing/contact-preference-register.html) and I think the Barnardos Post Adoption Service also have some experience in this area.

Anyway, it sounds like ye have more than enough to be going on with for now :-) and, presumably, once the reunion/s are out of the way, the other siblings will also be interested in tracing this guy and many hands etc?

All the best.

Rins

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