Looking for My dads Bio Dad

[manitobamama]

Hello,
I am looking for my dad bio dad.
It's like looking for a needle in a stack of needles.
My dad was born in 1940 to my grand mum who was 17/18 at the time. After having him, she got married to her first cousin (yes that was still done then), who adopted my father under his name. His BC that was made here in Canada has his step dads name vice his real bio dads name.

My dad remembers a last name that my grand mum told him however, being now 77, with no access to internet, he can't remember it all.

How do I even start to find out his bio dads true identity? My dad and family moved to Canada in 1946. Dad was born at Shoreham-by-the-sea Worthing WestSussex, England Kingston-by-Sea Upper Shoreham Road.

Where do I even start?? I can't afford anything pricey in my search.

Thank you

[geneius]

Hello & Welcome

A possible start is this free site, it contains birth /marriages /deaths since 1 July 1837, and is an ongoing transcription project

You should be able to find your grandmothers birth entry and your fathers, and a marriage. You will need to enter Worthing as the register area of search, this will encompass Shoreham Sussex.

There is the 1939 register available on Find My Past to find where your grandmother was living at 1 September 1939. We are only able to give basic info form this due to the site T&C

We order certificates form this site they cost £9.25bp www.gro.gov.uk the site contains info as to what you may expect to see on a certificate etc.

There is also this free site https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates allows you to look for the mther's maiden name although from what you have stated this may not be necessary.

Get stuck...let us know

https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Should also have said, we tend not to post names of living persons!

[Megan Roberts]

If you father's mother and biological father were not married it's possible / probable that he will not be listed at all on your father's original birth certificate.

If your grandmother was not married, then it is likely that the his birth would have originally been registered under her maiden name.

Trying to trace the biological father is those circumstances is difficult. How soon after your father was born did she marry? The reason for asking is that if there was a period of a couple years she might have tried to get financial support from the biological father, and in which case there might be a record in local newspapers or court papers. But if married soon afterwards then the chances are that she would not have done so.

You talk about your father having a Canadian birth certificate. Was that related to his change of name, or to his change of nationality? Would there be any paperwork about the natural father in those papers, or the papers when family moved to Canada?

[Lesley Robertson]

Welcome to the british Genealogy Forum.

As already mentioned, we do not allow details about (potentially) living people to be posted on the open forum. Information can be provided via the personal message (pm) system, though. However, Brit Gen isn't really set up for this type of search. You may find something useful in our Adoption forum, but we usually suggest that people contact organisations set up for this sort of search such as the Salvation Army and (I think) Barnados. They have access to much more data than we do, and will also be able to advise about what to do if you identify someone.

In the UK, all births have to be registered, so it might be worth looking for a British birth certificate despite the fact that he had a Canadian one as well. It may not help - children born outside marriage were normally registered under the mother's surname, so it might not help.