Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops View Post
Thanks for that detailed comment.
One of the satisfying aspects of detailed family history research is that it gives a sense of being 'grounded', so I'm not sure how I'd react to being in your wife's situation. Could be most unsettling to say the least.

I've got an odd situation in my own family re adoption. One of my ancestors was a powder monkey at Trafalgar and despite deserting from the Navy, he received a medal with a Trafalgar bar which according to newspaper reports he wore proudly until his death. I wondered what had happened to his medal as there's a direct line from him down to my mother. Recently, there's been a lot of publicity about an HBOS fraud case (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...aces-jail.html). One of the guilty (who had a yacht called Powder Monkey) has my mother's maiden name. He had a blog in which he boasted of his family connections with my ancestor - even having his Trafalgar medal. He claims to be the grandson of my great uncle. But my mother told me years ago that he and his brother were adopted. I've searched the Births Registration Index exhaustively and can't find either of them there, so I'm pretty sure she was right.
I've PM'd you.