father-in-law, adopted in the 60s, trying to trace parents

Branoic

I need some information or advice, but first I'll fill you in on the story.

My father-in-law is in his late 50s. He was left in a Sisters of Charity orphanage when he was 15 months old, and was in a couple of different places including Arthane until he was a teenager, when he was adopted.

In the early years his mother used to visit him from time to time, but stopped when he was about 8, so he's always had dim recollections of her, snippets of half remembered overheard conversations with the nuns and that sort of thing. These left him with the impression that his mother was a domestic servant in a big house in Dublin, and the idea that his father may have been the employer.

He's always talked about finding out about his parents, but never really did anything about it. I think it was because he'd built up a romantic history in his head of his mother and didn't want to find out if it was the truth. Every few years he'd do something half-heartedly. In 2006 he wrote to the Sisters asking them for copies of records they had about him. After several months they sent him on some documents - his birth cert (with the "father" field left blank), copies of registrar pages with entries in his name etc, but the amount of stuff blacked out was laughable. They blocked out any mention of addresses and names in most places, except in one or two instances where i think they may have overlooked some things. From this information he was able to confirm that his mother was in fact a domestic servant "at various addresses in Dublin", that he was illegitimate, and that the reason for giving him up was "destitute - mother unable to support him". There was also a mention of his mother being formerly of Mountrath, Co. Laois. There was also a copy of a letter from his mother to the nuns sent when he was around 11 or 12, asking after him, asking for a recent photo, and asking the nuns to pray for her occasionally.

Anyway, he put all this stuff away and didn't do anything with any of it again some years. Then, a couple of months ago, he just decided to go to Mountrath and see if anything came of it. He was driving around when he saw two elderly ladies, so he pulled over and asked them if they knew anyone by the surname of his mother. They said they did, and pointed him in the direction of a house outside the town. This led to him to a man who turned out to be his mother's surviving brother - his uncle. He learned that his mother passed away almost 10 years ago now, but the brother and his family were very happy to meet him, and in the past couple of months he's met them quite often. They didn't know very much about his mother's life in Dublin - they'd known she'd given a child up but that was about it, i guess people didn't really talk about things like that back then. They were able to give him some photographs of her and fill him in on her life, and brought him to her grave, but they didn't have any information on who his father might be.

So that's the story. He's now delighted that he's found blood relatives, and there's a good friendly relationship there which has encouraged him to continue looking for any information on his father, but we don't know where to go next.

What are the options available for people trying to find their parents from back then? The nuns obviously have more relevant information they haven't given us. Can they just withhold any information they want, or is there anything my father-in-law can do to get them to release the undoctored records they have, or is there a government agency he can apply for the information for under FOI or something?

Thanks for reading!

MaryMagdalene

To be brutally honest I don't think he has much of a chance. Sorry.

In 1985 when I was just after giving birth the Matron came over and demanded a name for my daughter (which I had never even considered- sounds stupid but I didn't even know I could chose one).

Anyway she barked questions at me re name address etc (which by the way she put down my address as the home I sent to even though I told her my home address) and when it came to fathers name I told her and she ignored it and put down unknown. Hence she chose the information that went onto the birth cert not me.

That was how it was in 1985 so I would imagine it was worse in the 1960's.

Cruel as it was Fathers were simply in the most part ignored.