|
Date: |
|
Description: | Smethwick Magistrates Court ceased to exist in 1966, and was merged with Rowley Regis and Oldbury to become Warley Magistrates Court. Smethwick adoption files appear to have been retained in their original series after the merger, however, and so all files have been catalogued with Smethwick Magistrates Court records, including those files from after 1966. Adoption files usually contain the adoption order, the application for an adoption order filled in by the prospective adoptive parents, and a copy of the child's original birth certificate or certificate of registry of a birth, and may contain consent forms from birth parents or other guardians. A few also contain correspondence from adoption agencies or other parties. From 1950 the procedure and surviving documentation change, in accordance with the Adoption of Children (Summary Jurisdiction) Rules 1949. The files usually include a medical report on the child, and a children's officer's report, describing the circumstances of the adoption and containing a short assessment of the adoptive home, and confirming certain requirements, e.g. the free consent of the birth parents. This sometime gives some further information on their circumstances. It was from this point that adoptive parents were routinely offered the option to remain anonymous on the consent forms. Note on dates: the birth certificate date is not included in the range in the date field. Adoption records are closed and may only be accessed by the adopted person through their local adoption service.
Open statistical returns should be filed separately to avoid any risk of serving restricted material. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/ | Publisher: | Sandwell Archives | Rights holder: | Sandwell Archives | Temporal: | 1927 - 1989 | Source: | Black Country History | Creator: | Smethwick Magistrates Court | Identifier: | http://www.blackcountryhistory.org/colle... | Go to resource |
|
|