Genealogy Chat

Hi a friend of mine recently found out that she had a sister who had been adopted as a baby. She has been in touch with a social worker and sadly her sister had died in the 70s. She had been married twice and it is possible she had children from one of the marriages. My friend paid for a death certicate to be obtained via the social worker, but she was not allowed to see it as it contained her sisters married name and husbands name as being present at the death. Do you know the legalities of this situation, as I feel my friend should have been given access to the death certificate she had paid for and be able to carry out further research on her own. She would dearly love to know if her sister had children if only to find out a little more about the sister she never met. What are your thoughts? Many thanks

She should go back the social worker as the rules changed on 31 Oct this year
http://tiny.cc/5iexox - links to a .gov.uk page

At the very least she should ask the Social Worker to contact the family on her behalf, or to ask for a letter to be passed on.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/relatives-of-adopted-adults-now-able-to-trace-family-tree


Read the from the link above Kathleen to get details that may help your friend and she can further her search,costs will incure and could be a lenghtly process,and there is a cut off point as in time span.

Regards the other matter--its all entered into on a none disclosure case and should have been made clear from the onset,so the certificate information wont be disclosed......its not the SW job to engage further or contact the remaing family as the persons adoption may not have been known.


Who found the death?

Hi - thanks for the information - I will pass the details on to my friend. It was the social worker who found the death - she said it was common surname so would be hard to trace the husband.