On Fri, 29 May 2009 16:20:56 -0600, Liz_in_Calgary <[email protected]> wrote: >On Fri, 29 May 2009 22:09:20 +0100, in alt.genealogy Charles >Ellson <[email protected]> wrote : > >>On Thu, 28 May 2009 18:29:30 -0600, Liz_in_Calgary <[email protected]> >>wrote: >> >>>Hi all. >>> >>>Its my understanding that adoptions required little paper >>>work prior to 1950 or so. Where would one look for any kind >>>of record for such an event? >>> >>Which jurisdiction ? > >Well thats just it isn't it... who knows - They may have >had to go to the states to get this child. The only sure >thing I know is that they, the parents, lived in Toronto., >and in the 1911 census there was no child living with them. > >I did a search of the Star and Globe and Mail for an >announcement - sometimes people did this, but had no luck >finding anything. Not surprising, the fathers obit a few >years later did not even mention a wife, let alone an >adopted daughter. > Various cases in recent years (UK and elsewhere) suggest that the relevant authority (if any) at the receiving end of an adoption being fully involved is not guaranteed in older adoptions. The 1921 census (if/when available) would seem to be "obvious" [TM] place to find the information but might there have been a following marriage/death/etc. record somewhere which would have recorded the birthplace ? If it is the same as the UK was then the adopted person could very likely have been the child of a not too distant relative. If the child's presence seems somewhat transient then another possibility is that in modern terminology the child wasn't adopted but fostered, thus probably "disappearing" when reaching majority if not earlier.