My Adoption - the story begins...

This is me and and my mum. She adopted me and my brother Sam both at an early age. She passed away in 1997. Mum and I never really discussed the adoption but during her last few years I began to look into the story.

Mum was apprehensive but agreed I ought to do it. How I found my birth mother, brothers and sisters makes fascinating reading.

I began by applying for a copy of my original birth certificate, and so the story unfolded...

The Social Worker

I always thought I was David Higgs, born in London 1948....

When I obtained my birth certificate I found I was born David Parry in 1948 (at least I was right about the year) at Leighton Buzzard Hospital. It also told me the adoption was legally confirmed at a hearing of the Juvenile Court sitting at Friends House Euston road, London in 1952.

I called them and they told me all the records had been transferred to the Greater London Record Office. When I rang them to see if they had any old case files about the adoption, a lady answered and after I had explained she asked me to wait. After waiting for about five minutes, the lady returned to say Yes we do have a file in the name of David Parry. This was strange. To think there was a report, written about me, resting in some dusty file for more than forty-five years, probably never read by anyone since it was placed there.

She said she could not tell me it's contents nor was I able to come and read the file because the law made it a requirement to attend an interview with an Adoption Counsellor before any information could be given to me. So in November 1996 I made an appointment with Paula, a social worker of the Family Finding Unit of Enfield Council (my local council at that time).

When I met with Paula, I explained my quest and she agreed to help. She went to the Record Office and copied the file. Later, in Enfield, at a fateful meeting with her, she read to me the notes she had made, by copying them from the old file. Here I first learnt my mother's real name Cook and her two other children, my brother and a sister I never knew existed.