Why can’t I find out more about my grandmother’s birth parents?
QMy grandmother, Grace Annie Bamforth, was adopted at birth by John Henry and Agnes Wood, and knew nothing about her birth parents. The 1901 census states she was born in Ilkley. Her baptism record reveals she was born on 25 July 1896 and baptised at St Bartholomew’s Church, Marsden, West Yorkshire, on 16 October 1896. Her parents were Henry and Grace Amelia Raynsfirth/Raynsforth of Hey Heads, Marsden, Huddersfield. Her father is recorded as deceased, but I can’t find him (or Grace) anywhere before this. Trish Williams
AThe baptism you found raises some interesting points. Notably, Grace Annie’s first names were retained by John Henry and Agnes Wood after adoption, which suggests that they were connected in some way to the biological parents. It was unusual, but not impossible, at this time for there to be no birth certificate. The birthdate of 25 July 1896 suggests she should have been registered in the September quarter of 1896, or at the latest the December quarter. A search for a ‘Grace Annie’ registered in Huddersfield in Sep–Dec 1896 on freebmd.org.uk had one result: Dec 1896; Brown, Grace Annie; Huddersfield; 9a, 344.
No Grace Annie was registered in this period in Wharfedale (the registration district for Ilkley), but in the December quarter of 1896 there is an entry for a Grace Lupton (9a, 138).
The General Register Office index at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/ content/ revealed that Grace Annie Brown’s mother’s maiden name was Wood. It’s worth checking if the birthdate on this certificate matches your grandmother’s. However, there is a death entry in the September quarter of 1897 for a Grace Annie Brown in Huddersfield born c1897 (9a, 227), which may be this child.
Also, a search for Hey Heads on the 1901 census reveals four households. The largest is that of Frederick Wood, a 51-year-old general labourer from Kent with a wife and nine children. This family is in Sussex in 1881 and Derbyshire in 1891 with Frederick working on the railways. Although he has the same surname as Grace’s adopted father, the latter was born in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. An autosomal DNA test may help to confirm any possible leads. Emma Jolly