Adopted

[saz1885]

My best friend's Grandfather (c.1930), so the story goes, was left on Westminster bridge by a 'famous jazz player of the time'. He was adapoted by a family with the surname Adams. John Adams, the boy's adoptive father, was a Police Inspector working around the Wapping Docks area.

Any one got ANY IDEA on how on earth I can help my best friend track any of this incredible story, especially considering her Grandfather's birth certificate was set on fire and burnt down to ashes before his very eyes.

Thanks.x

[granof17]

Hi saz...perhaps a search of the newspaper archives..... in the general area at that time.A story like that one would have to have been recorded.

Google up all the London/Wapping newspapers circa 1930.

Good luck

Gill

[joette]

Also he would be able to get a copy of birth certificate-unless it was left with him when he was abandoned but would think that would be very unlikely & was the original with the names of his birth parents.

To my knowledge adopted children have a birth certificate which gives the name of the adoptive parents.They do have an original one too with birth parents name but if he was a foundling then unless parents were traced this would be unknown.

[soosie]

I've got my birth certificate with my 'original' name and birth mothers name, with 'Adopted' in the right hand margin. That's also the name I'm in the BMD registers as.
I also have an adopted birth certificate with my proper name and Mum & Dad's details on. They are both red.
You need to know your original details to find yourself in the BMD Registers.
If adopted before 1975 you'll have to go to Social Services.
Try NORCAP for advice - I don't think someone else can get the information, I think your friends grandfather will have to get it himself.
The advice about searching the papers seems a good start, as Gill says, something like that would have probably been reported in the press, but if he was a foundling, information is going to be extremely difficult.

Good luck.
Sue