This month, Karen Evans helps readers Hilary and Stuart with their DNA dilemmas – including a 20th century baby, and an 18th century brick wall
Trying to trace my mother’s mum
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HILARY WRITES:
I have had a DNA test done and have carried out quite a lot of research.
As a child, I was in regular touch with three maiden ‘aunts’ and various other ‘aunties’ who I understood were my mother’s relatives. Eventually, my mother informed me that she had been brought up at the Foundling Hospital in London and the ‘aunties’ were mostly girls who had been there at the same time as her or were friends she had made subsequently. The maiden ‘aunts’ were actually part of the family she was fostered out to from the approximate age of 3 months to 5 years old. My mother had no knowledge of any blood relations.
Gradually, over the years I learnt that some of her friends had found out about their origins at the Foundling Museum in London. In 1994, my mother decided to do the same. I accompanied her on a very emotional journey to London, where we were met by a social worker, who was very kind and welcoming.
We were shown the entry in the large Baptism Book, documenting the new names children taken in by the hospital were baptised with (overriding the name given by their parent/s). I was the one who burst into tears, as I had wanted to know about my origins for so long.
The social worker asked my mother why she had not tried to find out sooner and she expressed very personal reasons why she had delayed. My mother was then handed her original birthcertificate with her original name (in place of the very short one she was given at the Foundling Hospital with her new name). She was also given a synopsis of the information her mother (my grandmother) had supplied when she handed her baby over.
This information has obviously proved invaluable for my research. The information about my grandfather (John White) has proved to be correct and with help I have traced him from birth to grave; some of his other relatives show up as the top matches with shared DNA to mine.
My grandmother is a different matter; I have begun to wonder if she supplied a false name for my mother’s birth certificate.
Information supplied by The Foundling Museum in London is as follows:• My mother’s original name – Jean Taylor White (although her mother was not married to her father).
• Born 9th December 1908 at a maternity home at
