[poullafouca]

I am trying to help my aunt Frances Brigid O'Donoghue, she placed for adoption her sibling group Paul John (29/11/59) and Jennifer Pavlina O'Donoghue(29/10/60) , it was Summer 1961 when the children were placed in Barnardos, she thinks it was Ramsgate or Margate.
They were placed as a sibling group, she signed papers for that. She is a really fabulous person, I'd be proud to know her, in any capacity.

If anyone has any ideas, please get in touch. Thanks

Poulla

[Robin Harritt]

Poulla

If Frances believes they were adopted (the way to tell is to buy new copies of their original birth certificates, if it does not say adopted in the margin of the certificates then they were not adopted) then she should contact

Barnardos Family Connections UK
Cottage No. 1
Tanners Lane
Barkingside
ILFORD
IG6 1QG
Telephone: 020 8550 2688
Fax: 020 8551 8914
Email: familyconnections@barnardos.org.uk

http://services.barnardos.org.uk/familyconnections/

If they were not legaly adopted but remained in care or foster care through Barnardos then she should contact Barnado's Aftercare

After Care Centre,
Barnardo's,
Tanners Lane,
Barkingside,
Ilford,
Essex,
IG6 1QG.

Telephone no: 0208 498 7536
Fax no: 0208 498 7017
Email: aftercare@barnardos.org.uk

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/whatwedo/aftercare/


I hope that is of some help.

Robin Harritt

http://harritt.net

[poullafouca]

Thanks, I know that she is planning to get their BC's, they were adopted as a sibling group, after she placed them in Barnardos, she signed papers for this, she says. She was given the paperwork a while after they were placed in Barnardos.

Poulla

[poullafouca]

Robin, may I ask your advice, I live in the US, so I am not totally up to speed on UK law, and I am trying to help my aunt locate her children because I can use the internet and she doesn't and potentially I can do it quicker etc.

Is the law that only after Sept 2005 parents of adopted children can try to find them? Or for the moment is it better that I try and do it as these two people are my cousins?

Please let me know what you think.

Poulla

[Robin Harritt]

Poulla

The law for England & Wales will change at sometime (exactly what time keeps changing at the moment it's Sept 2005) to establish statutory services called Adoption Support Agencies which will be able to accept requests from birth relatives to search for adopted people and ascertain their wishes re contact with birth family. It will be entirely up to the adoptee whether or not the agency should tell the birth relative any information about him/her at all.

However some agencies already offer such a service if the adoptee was adopted through that agency or one of the defunct agencies which it has taken over responsibility for records of. Barnardos will already offer that service. But I think your aunt is going to have to contact them herself in the first instance, though any immediate blood relative can request a search, they would want to meet with you before they would agree to send information directly to you. I think Frances should contact them so as soon as possible as there will be a real rush on when the law does change.

Unless your cousins are actively looking for their birth family on the internet it may not that helpful a tool, as you do not know what their post-adoption names are (and of course Jennifer will probably have a married name which differs from the adoptive family name). Sometimes it is possible to find that out the new names, but that would require a visit to the Family Record Centre in London and the expense of buying a lot of adoption certificates around a known date of adoption until ones with the right DoB and court(s) of adoption are found. Not a method I would recommend unless you have lot more info to work with.

Quite definitely if Dr Barnardo's Homes arranged the adoptions then your first enquiries should be to Barnardos Family Connections UK


Robin

[poullafouca]

Robin, many thanks, I have passed on your advice to my aunt. She is in the UK, and as you said, it will be easier to deal with things from there.

Thanks

Poulla

[jimbob]

Hi,

Jennifer is very well known to me, I have also met her brother.

Just by way of proof, Jenny understands her mother worked in St Pancras and her father is believed to be Greek
Please get in touch asap

Regards
Jim
Mobile 07802 660335

[jimbob]

Me again, Just dug out old paperwork, I spent a lot of time on Jennifers behalf trying to trace her mother for her..
I tried various methods of spelling both odonoghue and frances but always drew a blank.
I now know why, Jennifers birth certificate shows Bridget not Brigid !
Mother (your Aunt) , 5'2" dark hair brown eyes, fair skin 1 of 10 children, 1 brother and two sisters are younger, aged 24 in 1962
Father Greek Cypriot from Cyprus, 5 brothers and four sisters

I think Paul was originally called Pavlous Yiannis
Jim