Can someone help me with this legal issue?

cjm4eva

Hi,

I was just wondering if someone can tell me how to find out if my parents are adopted?

Im not saying I adopted them as my parents but i think my grandparents adopted them. When was adoption invented and how to i go about reading files on people who may or may not have been adopted?

Can anyone help?

martinf

Hi,

Legalised adoption has existed in Ireland since the early 1950's. Before that "De Facto" adoptions took place but had no legal basis as far as I'm aware. One of the quickest ways to establish if your parents are adopted would be to ask them or your grandparents directly but on the basis that you've posted here I'm assuming this would be difficult or even impossible. There are a number of other possibilities. If you strongly suspect that your parents were adopted and know their date of birth and your grandparents namesthen you could go to the National Library of Ireland and look up Iris Oifigiul which is the official Gazette of the Irish Government. Apparently all adoptions between the early fifties up to 1989 are recorded in it. You would need to look in the issues published at least 6 weeks after your parents birth and as far forward as necessary. Some children weren't adopted until a number of months or years after birth. The entries show the new name and adoptive parents names and address at the time. You may well find what you're looking for there.

Alternatively you could go to the Register of Births research room (currently housed in the Irish Life Centre unless they have moved back to their usual home of Joyce House) and see if their names appear in the registry of births. For example if your father's name is John Murphy and his mother's maiden name was O'Sullivan then you would look up the file for the year he was born under Murphy and see if you find a John with the mother's maiden name of O'Sullivan. If there are a number of possible matches you can request a copy of the original entry which will show the mother and father's full name and if this matches your details chances are you've found the right record. I think it would be unlikely that you would find two children born on the same day, in the same part of the country and with both parents first names and mother's maiden name the same. If you do the father's occupation might be the final matching piece. If you find a match it's possible that your father was not adopted at all.

You could carry out a similar search on your mother. Now for the warnings!!

• Just because you get an entry in the birth register that matches your parent's details does not absolutely guarantee that they are the natural child of the parents listed on the birth cert. It isn't unheard of to have the "de facto" adopters names put in and this makes it very difficult to establish whether an adoption took place. You would need to confirm it with your parents or grandparents.
• If you don't get a match in the year of your parent's birth you will need to check the next few years to see if they were registered late. It is even possible that your parent's birth has never been registered, though the younger they are the more unlikely this probably is.

As an aside what makes you think that your parents may be adopted?

Hope the above is useful.

Kind Regards

Martin

Ostrom

Hi OP, I am adopted and have been through the works with registry office records. I do a lot of my research in the national archives and national library, so if you have any questions (access, cataloguing, application), fire away, it can be a bit confusing. If I cant help ill try point you in the right direction

The_Conductor

cjm4eva wrote: »

Hi,

I was just wondering if someone can tell me how to find out if my parents are adopted?

Im not saying I adopted them as my parents but i think my grandparents adopted them. When was adoption invented and how to i go about reading files on people who may or may not have been adopted?

Can anyone help?

Martin's information is spot on.

There is also a set of books (I think its currently 5 volumes long) known as "The Adopted Children's Register". Its not in chronological order- but its not far off (just make sure you don't rely on it being in correct order)- but if you request to view it- you can find the "new" name of the adopted person (which is what your parents would be going by), along with the date of birth and the name of the adoptive parents (very similar to the information which would have been published in Iris Oifigiul). If you don't have access to back issues of Iris Oifigiul- it may be an easier way to search the records.

If they were in the register- you would then search the birth register books for births on the same birthday as your parents, with the same surname for the mother and child- as per the guide for tracing for adopted people........

Feel free to ask any questions you might have here- the folk are very helpful!