Seeking adopted aunt
Q Nana gave birth to a girl, Joan, at Southwell Workhouse on 4 February 1931. Joan seems to have been adopted by a couple in the Skegness area. I am interested in finding out about Joan, and whether she ever had a family.
Margaret Barnaby
A The crucial piece of information, which is so often missing in these cases, is the person’s date of birth. Clearly, you have it in this case, and armed with the date of 4 February 1931, it’s possible to search two important sources; the 1939 National Register and the GRO’S death indexes (from April 1969 onwards). Both of these record individuals’ dates of birth and in theory it should be possible to identify Joan in one or both of them – whatever surname she was recorded under. If her adopted parents gave her a new first name then our chances of finding her diminish significantly.
The 1939 Register lists the civilian population of England and Wales on 29 September 1939. People who were temporarily absent from the country or who were on active service with HM Forces are not included. The register was in active use until 1952 until which time it was a legal requirement for deaths to be notified but it was still used by the National Health Service until 1991 so some later deaths were also notified. Records of everyone born since 1919 are, by default, ‘closed’ unless they are known to have died. There is no entry for anyone called Joan in the Skegness area (or elsewhere in Lincolnshire) which could possibly relate to your grandmother’s daughter, so the likelihood is (assuming she is recorded in the register) that her record is closed and this suggests that she is either still alive or that her death has not been notified.
If she died after April 1969, it should be possible to find her in the GRO’S death indexes (these are easily searchable up to 2005 and there’s a partial index covering the period from 2007 to 2015). Again, there is no convincing entry for someone called Joan, with a birth date of 4 February 1931.
There are many reasons why we might not be able to trace her; she may have died before 1969 or quite recently or she may have left the country. It’s also possible that her date of birth was recorded incorrectly in the documents.
Probably the best way forward with this is to add your details to the Adoption Contact Register. Details of how this works can be found at: www.gov.uk/adoption-records/the-adoption-contactregister. DA