re.tracing birth mother

atlanticmist

Hi there, I was born Nov.1973 in the Sacred Heart convent Cork. I started looking for information about my history six years ago.I recieved a letter from Sister Sarto informing me of my birth mothers christian name, my birth weight and asking me to contact her for councelling should I take my search further.I have been kicking myself ever since, because I stopped my search in order to concentrate on having my own family.Last year I began the difficult task again only to discover that Sister Santo had retired and that the agency was in a 'period of transition'.I feel I totally wasted all those years when I could have been so close to finding out some information about myself.I came across this site a few days ago and have read the stories over and over again.I found them very helpful esp.to read about other people's searches. A friend of mine works in the civil service and she was able to do a little research for me and as a result I got the second name of my birth mother. I made a three hour journey up and down to Dublin yesterday to the general regestry of births,and I think I have now got my birth cert.Would you believe that today the HSE wrote to me to say that they are looking after the files for the Sacred Heart adoption society.I could'nt believe it.Can anybody advise as to what I should do now.Do I wait for the HSE to get back to me, or continue tracing myself? If the latter, how do I do this?I dont know where my birth mother was from.There was only her name on the birth cert, no other information.Thanks.Atlanticmist.

kathy finn

hi, if you ar going to wait for the hse to do a search you will have a long wait.i would still contact them and ask for ur non id information and get on the list for a search. while ur waiting u can always do ur own search, do u know what age ur birthmother was when she had u. if so u could look up her birthcert and that will give u her parents names, then look for her marraige cert. hope this helps kathy

atlanticmist

Hi Kathy, thank you for advise.Will write to, and ring the HSE today.I have no more information on my birth mother-just her name. Here goes.....

Pinkle2011

Hi,
A friend of mine was in the convent at the same time as you were born! Think her baby was also a November baby too! She has recently traced her birth child and they are in the process of establishing contact.

As far as I know she found her child through an agency in Droghada. Not 100% sure of the ins and outs of it but thought it might be of some use to you. I know she also was in contact with the HSE and actually got a letter from them recently saying they had found a match for her. This was after she had made innitial contact with her birth child through this other agency.
As for continuing your own search I can totally understand why you want to do it but would have reservations about it myself. It is a difficult process and you really want to make sure you have all the correct and verified information. I wish you luck in your search. Let us know how you get on.

atlanticmist

Thanks for that.I think Im at a dead end -dont think there is much more I can do myself with regards searching myself,as my information is minimal.I know that I was the only baby girl born on that date in the sacred heart hospital. (Forgot to write in my origional letter above, that my birth mother gave me a name that I actually called my own daughter-I couldnt believe that.)I spoke to a lady from the HSE yesterday and the files from cork are arriving to them next monday.There are thousands of files and she doesnt know how they are going to start prosessing them.It could be a long wait.Your friend is very lucky, I wish her the best of luck.Will keep you posted.Thanks again.

kathy finn

hi, your not at a dead end at all u have enough info to do a search yourself. take a look at the traceing guides at the top of the page and go get ur birthcert from their u get more info to move on in ur search. you will be looking for a baby born on ur date of birth in cork with the mothers surname the same as the babys, it,s a real give away if their is no father on the birthcert. since u where the only baby born in bessboro it would be easy enough to find. don,t give up yet and if u need any help im in dublin just pm me.. kathy

atlanticmist

Hi Kathy, thanks a million for encouragement.I wont give up.

Pinkle2011

Hi

I asked my friend again about tracing her baby. Though she is not keen in discussing her search (think it was a difficult process which did take over 2 years) she found out more from the records of the priest who was involved in her adoption (Fr Regan) his records are kept in Drogheda. Think allot of adoptions were passed on by the nuns to outside agencies. I assume this priest was well known in adoption circles as his name has come up a few times in discussions on this board.
Even if he was not involved in your adoption it might be worthwhile checking out adoption agencies which had links to Blessboro as their records are def. in better order than the convents.

atlanticmist

Hiya, thanks for that.will do some research on adoption agencies,like you said.

Dani2411

Hi I am just wondering how you got on searching your birth mother as I am searching for my sister who would have been adopted from this place in the 1970s , and do not know where to start looking .

mamafi

Hi Atlanticist, I was just reading your posts and seen that you called you daughter the same name your bm called you. We recently got all hubbys info here about his adoption and discovered that he named our eldest son the same name that his bm named him.He picked the name for our eldest as I couldn't decide on a name and in all the names we discussed when i was pregnant this 1 never came up...Life is strange. Best of luck with your search hun and even though i am only new on this I am amazed at the support everyone gives each other so this is a great spot to get advice and help. Again best of luck.

diabeticmum

Hope your search has brought some answers atlanticist

rinsjwind

Hi Atlanticist

I assume you've seen the thread on the bessboro/sacred heart records (long thread!) but it sums up the current situation of the HSE in Cork, i.e. they're pretty much phuqed!.

If you're not living in the Cork area, your local HSE or one the other agencies might be able to help. The AAI will have contact details for them and while you're on to them it can't hurt to try their contact register thing? I read somewhere that there have been nearly 10,000 people (about 60-40 adoptees to relatives) registered with around 500 matches so far, I know, 20/1 odds, but you never know?

If you're sure the birth cert is right and you are going to search for yourself, then the HSE in Cork might be able to give you more non ID info (your birth mums age, even approximately, and any other info like her occupation, a homeplace, etc) which will be invaluable {see the trace guides and buy your friend in the CS a nice bottle, or two!, of whatever he or she drinks! :-)} but do go on the HSE waiting list as well, if one of the other options pans out, they'll be only too glad to take you off the list!

Good luck.

Rins
RINS

atlanticmist

Dani2411 wrote: »

Hi I am just wondering how you got on searching your birth mother as I am searching for my sister who would have been adopted from this place in the 1970s , and do not know where to start looking .

Hi

atlanticmist

Hi Dani2411, Sorry for the late reply as I had some difficulty figuring out how to reply!!! I am no closer in my search for my birth mother. I rang the Regional Adoption Services in Cork a few times this year to find out if they were any closer to dealing with my file.They told me that they were dealing with tracing inquires starting from the oldest adopted children.Therefore I will have a long wait.I havent had a chance to go back to Dublin to look up my birth mothers name.....Her name is Mary ********. That is all I know....I mean where in Gods name do you start. Good luck with your search.Do you have any information at all on your sister?Her date of birth,birth mothers name???

Moderators note- please refrain from putting personally identifying information on the internet- its not fair on the person concerned.

atlanticmist

Hi diabeticmum, Im still searching if perhaps a little on the slow side.Its a year since I found out my BM name so I think I need to pick up the pace a bit.Thank you.

atlanticmist

Hi Rins, thanks for that information.I will get on to my local HSE and the Cork one also...I never thought of that.If I had any other piece of information on my BM I feel it would b worth going back to the national registrar in Dublin to go through the books. I have done very little in the last year with regards my search ,except to make phone calls to the Adoptions Board in Dublin and the Regional Adoption service in cork..and got no where.
Thank you for your help.

The_Conductor

Atlanticmist- if you follow the steps outlined in our traceguides located here, you should be able to find your own original birthcertificate, which will have more information on your birthmum, including her date of birth- which you could then leverage to find her birthcertificate, which you could then use to check the marriage register, the voting register etc........ It really is a stepping stone- one little nugget of information leads to another etc.

Its very worthwhile investing the time in going to the research room on Talbot Street- you have plenty to work off already- but please verify the information you have, as its far from unusual for information in the files to be inaccurate, accidentally or by design- you are well advised to presume its wrong until such time as you confirm it elsewhere.

If any of us can be of any help- please don't hesitate to ask.

Also- please be conscious of the privacy of both yourself and your birthmum- and refrain from using surnames etc in this forum.

Kind regards,

Shane

Equality

An adopted friend of mine used the online records for the 1901 and 1911 census, with great success.

The friend had the correct birth surname for her mother, turns out that the surname was not that common, and it resulted in getting a lot of detail on the family. The census records were for the grandparents, but it was easy to get the birth mother's details once she had those.

If you have a county as well, you can use this as a limiting factor when you search the census details. Don't rely too heavily on the county where the child was born, as most unmarried mothers were sent to mother and baby home some distance away from their home town, to keep the birth private.

netdel

Hi Atlanticmist,
On just seeing your post I was wondering have you seen a place in cork called Know your own, you can look them up
on the website and im sure they will help you with anything, they also hold meetings for adopted people once a month i think on mon nights in togher, cork

rinsjwind

atlanticmist wrote: »

Hi Rins, thanks for that information.I will get on to my local HSE and the Cork one also...I never thought of that.If I had any other piece of information on my BM I feel it would b worth going back to the national registrar in Dublin to go through the books. I have done very little in the last year with regards my search ,except to make phone calls to the Adoptions Board in Dublin and the Regional Adoption service in cork..and got no where.
Thank you for your help.

De nada, just don't get your hopes up too high about the other HSE services, they're in sh1te as well, just not as deep or as smelly as the folks in Cork!

Best of luck with your search.

Rins

rinsjwind

Oh yeah, about the searching yourself option?

I seem to recall, before your ever so gentle and friendly slap on the wrist by the mods :-), that your mams surname (which I have already completely forgetten!!) was reasonably uncommon and if you can get any other bit of information from the HSE or AAI, some idea of her age especially, but anything else, like what part of ireland she was from, names/occupations of her parents, names/number of any of her siblings or other children born to her, did she marry etc. I know it can be a touchy subject but is there anyone from your adopted family you could ask, as adoptive parents were sometimes given little snippets like a rough age, where she was from, city/country etc

If you can get the extra info then the GRO search is not that difficult, though it can be fairly tedious and can cost a few bob if you don't get lucky early on. The first name is unfortunate, as you won't be surprised to hear it's the most common female forename in Ireland (and has been inflicted on not a few unfortunate males!) but on the bright side it does eliminate all the anne's, kathleen's, bridgets, teresas and all their exoticly variable spellings :-).

Cheers

Rins

bosco gone

Hi I'm new to this but spotted Fr.Regans name and its one of two pieces of information that i have. born in Holles Street and Fr.Regan dealt with adoption...not much to go on but was delighted to see his name..any guides welcome:)

Brian Geary

I was born in july 1960 I have been trying to trace my birth mother I have mothers name and fathers but am struggling to get birth cert of mother as hv not got exact date of birth and mother sometimes went as johannah or hannah hv file frm st annes adoption soc released to me by southern health board I even engaged researcher n tried to find her baptisim cert as hv address where lived in mallow .I seem to be just hitting brick walls maybe im looking in wrong places or not pushing hard enough also realistic she may have died.... its strange how receipt for her travel voucher which she had to repay is in file she bought me by ferry to ireland but not her real date of birth she was 27 .

KatieRiley

Did you get your non identifying information from the adoption agency Brian. Do you know what her father did for a living ? (her fathers occupation will be on her birth cert ), or how many siblings she had or where she came in the family ? Sometimes these can be invaluable when deciding if you have the right birth cert or not as once you have her mothers maiden name you can search any other births to both parents ?

LennieB

Hi Brian - were you born in the UK? I was adopted through St Anne's but born in London (my birthmother who's Irish brought me back to Cork when I was 6 weeks old). She had dealt with the "Catholic Children's Society" in London beforehand (they arranged my transfer to Cork and would have dealt with a lot of Irish mothers). I got my non-identifying info from HSE South originally but as I was born in the UK, I was able to travel to London and get my original file from the CCS with all my birthmother's details (identifying info) and have since traced and reunited with her.