A DNA question that concerns a friend not me

[Margaret in Burton]

My friends husband recently had his DNA done via Ancestry. His situation is complicated. He thought he was adopted but now we realise he wasn’t, he was brought up in a family group home in the North East by a couple he thought were his adoptive parents but now realises they were just council employees. He feels his whole life has been a lie. He grew up with their surname as his, so has no idea what his real name was.
His DNA profile, which I haven’t seen myself, shows Scandinavian, Scottish/Irish and south of England Ancestry. Apparently it tells him he has two connections in the 1920’s who emigrated to Australia. He wasn’t born until 1954.

Any advise please? I know nothing about DNA. I do have an Ancestry sub which my friend doesn’t have.

[maggie_4_7]

There should be some records for this 'home' and also a social services file on children there surely.

Marg, you refer to it as a 'family group home' I haven't heard that expression before. Where did you hear that, from your friend's husband?

I just found this so I now understand.

https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000350

I think the starting point might be finding records of the home.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/children-care/

[Margaret in Burton]

There should be some records for this 'home' and also a social services file on children there surely.

Marg, you refer to it as a 'family group home' I haven't heard that expression before. Where did you hear that, from your friend's husband?

I just found this so I now understand.

https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000350

I think the starting point might be finding records of the home.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/children-care/

I’ve been in touch with the local council for the area. The trouble is, they want his name to search under. He doesn’t know it. He knows the name he went to school under and the name he joined the army as but that was the surname of the couple who ran the home. They’d told him they weren’t his birth parents but lead him to believe they’d adopted him. Everytime he asked any questions about his birth family he was told to shut up. He was encouraged to join the forces at 16 and now realises that was because he would have to leave being ‘in care’ at that age.

[Olde Crone]

I am sure he would have had to show a birth certificate when he joined up at 16. How did he get around that?

OC

Edited to say - the council are being obstructive, surprise surprise. They will have a record of the people who brought him up as they employed them and that ought to lead to the names of the children they were responsible for.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

I am sure he would have had to show a birth certificate when he joined up at 16. How did he get around that?

OC

Edited to say - the council are being obstructive, surprise surprise. They will have a record of the people who brought him up as they employed them and that ought to lead to the names of the children they were responsible for.

OC

His “adopted father” produced a “birth cert” in another name he’d never heard of. Said it was him. It also gave a date of birth with two dates (either side of midnight maybe”.
He says it looked dodgy and he doesn’t know how the army accepted it. At the moment through various house moves he’s misplaced it.

I can say that no person of that name was born at that time in England, Wales or Scotland

[kiterunner]

Marg, did he ever check the GRO adoption index (at Birmingham library, or elsewhere) in case the "birth cert" was a short form adoption cert?

I wouldn't put too much credence in ancestry's "ethnicity estimate" and it would probably be quite difficult to figure out how he is related to the two Australians until he has a name (for himself) to go on.

[Margaret in Burton]

Marg, did he ever check the GRO adoption index (at Birmingham library, or elsewhere) in case the "birth cert" was a short form adoption cert?

I wouldn't put too much credence in ancestry's "ethnicity estimate" and it would probably be quite difficult to figure out how he is related to the two Australians until he has a name (for himself) to go on.

No I don’t think so Kate.

We have a problem in that most of my communication is with his wife, he has been quite ill over the last few years, heart attack and stroke. This revelelation has hit him for six so to speak so his wife and I are trying to find out as much as we can without exacerbating his illness.

Plus, it looks like he wasn’t actually adopted. They just pretended he was for some unknown reason.

[Margaret in Burton]

Kate

Can anyone check the adoption register i.e., me for him or does it have to be him.

[kiterunner]

Marg, as far as I know, anyone can check the GRO adoption index at certain large libraries including Birmingham library, and can order a copy of an adoption certificate if they find an entry in the index. (The adoption certificate would show the adopted name and who adopted him, but not his birth name or birth parents' names.)

I know that the couple who brought him up don't seem to have adopted him, but it could be that he was adopted by someone else before he came to them.

This link lists the libraries which have the indexes:
https://www.gov.uk/research-family-history

[Margaret in Burton]

Thank you Kate. I’ll pass that information on

[Margaret in Burton]

Kate, I’ve emailed Birmingham library with an enquiry

[Margaret in Burton]

If anyone is wondering how he proves his identity now, he changed his name by deed poll quite a few years ago.

[Olde Crone]

Thanks Marg.

I think the Army would have accepted it without comment. They want to tick the box to say they have seen a birth certificate in order to cover their own backs. I doubt if they care whether it's genuine or not.

These situations make me so angry. People brought up in care, their identities concealed and then left to get on with it in adulthood. Shame on the care givers (the council, in this case).

OC

[Kit]

Would the army have a copy of the certificate? In which case could you apply for a copy of his records for him? Even if they don't have a copy would they have recorded the details?

[Tilly Mint]

Could your friend give the name of the so called carers to the council and maybe they can look at them registers to lead you to the 1st request, Marg. Surely they must have records of past employees in this kind of situation. Maybe ask for a key worker so that the same person is aware of the situation.

I hope this man gets all the info belongs to him.

[Margaret in Burton]

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I am passing them on.

[Margaret in Burton]

I have another question concerning Ancestry. My friend doesn’t have WiFi. They both access the internet via smart phones. If there are any possible matches from his DNA can he access it off my Ancestry account or does he have to have his own? If he has to have his own account does it have to be a fully paid up account which I think is beyond their finances .

[kiterunner]

A reply on ancestry's Facebook page from about a week ago:

The price you pay when you purchase a DNA test with Ancestry gives you access to your full ethnicity estimate as well as your DNA matches. There is no added cost to view your matches. However some extra features are available to subscribers. The article below advises further on this.

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/UK-AncestryDNA-and-Subscriptions

So if he doesn't have a sub, he can view the list of his DNA matches, and contact them, and see the lists of shared matches, but doesn't get full access to the matching people's public family trees.

Also, he can download his raw DNA data from ancestry and upload it for free to sites such as My Heritage (until 1st Dec this year) and FamilyTree DNA, which will give him more lists of matches. You do get some info about matching people's trees on those sites without a sub. Info on how to download the raw data:
https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/UK-CA-AU-Downloading-Raw-DNA-Data

And I've just found this maybe most important piece of info - he can invite you to be the "manager" of his DNA results and then your sub can be used to view matching people's trees etc. I have seen managers in my list of matches but I thought you could only be a manager if you ordered the test in the first place. Very interested to see how it actually works!

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/Sharing-DNA-Results

[Margaret in Burton]

Thank you Kate