Dad's birth not registered?

GlasweJen

My parents divorced when I was really young and I can't breathe about my biological dad in front of my mum for some pretty good reasons so I can't ask mum.

But I was on the Scottish people website trying to piece together a family tree of all 3 ends of my family and my dad isn't on it. There's no one with his name ever registered in Scotland. His sibling births are all there but not his (he's the oldest).

I'm fairly sure he's Scottish, the family has long ties with a particular area in Lanarkshire and I can't see why they'd move away in the 50s then move back.

Dad managed to get married and serve in the army. How is this possible?

pimento

Have you tried searching for him using his mum's maiden name?

gettingtheresometime

Is the name you think it is isn't?

bouicca21

Did his father move about, so the birth was registered elsewhere? Is he dead? If so you might be able to access his army record. Was he illegitimate or informally adopted, or could there be some other reason why his birth name differs from the one he used later? Was he trying to hide a secret in his past? Is there a christening record? Has the record been incorrectly transcribed?

There are so many possibilities.

Flugelhorn

have you checked the England and Wales registers (you never know, sometimes people can born in unlikely places)

miriamac

All of the above!

Also, use the wildcards when searching for the surnames, including his mum's maiden name.

I've found quite a few ancestors under their mother's maiden name. I've also found quite a few where the spelling of the surname was different - even in fairly modern records. In the older records the spelling seemed to be made up by the Registrars as they went along.

Don't narrow the search to a particular area - I've found people in places where I didn't expect them to be.

And, as already mentioned, don't rule out the possibility that your dad wasn't even born in Scotland at all.

Have you tried searching the marriage records to find when and where your parents got married? You won't be able to see the record online as it will be too new, but I think you can buy a copy online. That will give you lots more info.

Finally, and I know it may not be the best option for you, you can visit one of the regional family history centres - where you would have access to everything you can see on the public website, without having to pay per record, plus all the more modern records. The list of centres is at the bottom of this link

https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/visit-us

Good luck with the search!

GlasweJen

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Is the name you think it is isn't?

I don't understand. My parents were married and he's on my birth certificate so I'm using the name from my birth certificate. I also knew my birth family, just not him. That's how I know my aunts names and stuff. I tried leaving out his middle name but no one is coming up with the right time line for it to be him.

pimento wrote: »

Have you tried searching for him using his mum's maiden name?

Yes, his mums maiden name is also his middle name.

bouicca21 wrote: »

Did his father move about, so the birth was registered elsewhere? Is he dead? If so you might be able to access his army record. Was he illegitimate or informally adopted, or could there be some other reason why his birth name differs from the one he used later? Was he trying to hide a secret in his past? Is there a christening record? Has the record been incorrectly transcribed?

There are so many possibilities.

I don't think so, I've been led to believe that the family were in the area 60 years ago when a big event happened.

My grandparents got married in Scotland (in the area I'm from) but looking at the dates and doing the maths I think my dad might have been born before the wedding or it might have been cutting it fine.

I'm working from whispers and vague memories but my grandparents got married in 1958, I'm sure my dad was the oldest, there was another son who died in infancy and whispers say my dad was there and could have been partly to blame for the accident but that happened in 1961 according to the death certificate. My uncle was 3 when he died so my dad must have been older but can't have been much older than that. My gran was catholic.

There was connections somewhere to Ireland, it could be possible she had dad in Ireland but I don't know how to search their records.

I'm marginally helped in that my maiden name is fairly unusual so when I find people with that name we're probably related.

GlasweJen

Thanks everyone. I put grans maiden name last and our surname as a middle name and found the record but it makes my dad younger than I was led to believe.

For background when my parents divorced he moved away and we remained living in the village where his family came from and everyone had an opinion about him which they were keen to share and much speculation about the family in general.

silvercar

If it helps, I've never been able to find my late uncle's birth certificate. He was my father's younger brother and I know where he was born. No question of correct surname and correct parents, it just doesn't seem to exist. Born late 1940s, maybe people were more relaxed then.

Flugelhorn

Irish records can be searched here https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/civil-search.jsp