Hello list I finally broke down one brick wall only to hit another one. I had been trying to find the births of my grandfather Charles (Koppe/Kappe) and his brother Francis Henry (EVANs) b 1904 with no luck. There had been some hazy family story about my grandfather not knowing who his real father was. This now turns out to be true as I received a military record of great grandfather Fredrick Wm Burton that shows both Charles and Francis as adopted but not from the same family. I was over the moon to find their original surnames (although hard to read) on this record as they both took the surname of Burton in later years. Francis is shown on 1911 as the nephew (with the wrong second name) of my great grandparents so thought that might be relatively easy to track down his parents so got his birth cert and it shows he was born in the Union Workhouse Wandsworth and shows the parents as married not mum as a single mum. My question is could the whole family have been in the workhouse or is it more likely that the father may have passed away and mum and child ended up there and then my great grandparents being family took in the child Frances. Fathers occupation shown as Commercial Clerk on the birth cert - what would this be? Charles is not on the 1911 and his birth year that we are aware of was in 1911 but we have no hard evidence of that - but his death and marriage certs do indicate about that time frame is correct. There was a Charles Kappe/Koppe on 1911 born 1909 still with his family so can't sure that this is him. Also have tried to google on when formal adoptions started in UK but can only seem to find information relating on current adoption, not back in the early 1900s, so could anyone tell me if in 1904 and 1911ish it would have been likely that my grandfather and his brother were formally adopted and there would be records, or it is more likely an arrangement between families at the time. As mentioned by both took on the name of Burton by the time they were married as this shows up on both their marriage certs. Also what do other people do. It turns out the Burtons are not my blood great grandparents. Do I continue to research them or do I try to follow the Kappe/Koppe line or is that just a personal choice to follow which ever or both. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Cheers, Pieta Townsville, Qld, Australia

Hi Pieta Commiseration's on your find and also congratulations on your find Unfortunately official adoption only started in 1927 in England and Wales As to what line to research, only you can decide that but if it were me I would want to know about any line, the people you knew of as your great grandparents had a profound effect on your line, blood or not so why would you not want to research them What do they say, nature or nurture ? Nivard Ovington in Cornwall (UK) > I finally broke down one brick wall only to hit another one. I had been > trying to find the births of my grandfather Charles (Koppe/Kappe) and his > brother Francis Henry (EVANs) b 1904 with no luck. There had been some hazy > family story about my grandfather not knowing who his real father was. This

Is this the one in 1911 census KOPP CHARLES M 1909 2 St Pancras which could be this birth Robert Charles Kopp Year of Registration: 1908 Oct-Nov-Dec DISTRICT: St Pancras Volume: 1b Page: 21 Only Kopp I could find so looks like fore names preferences change by census I could not see anything on him ie marriage or death etc So might be worth researching as your eventual Burton As the Burton are kind of important to Charles it might be worth researching them further Ron Lankshear -Sydney NSW (from London-Shepherds Bush/Chiswick) try my links http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lankshear/