Durham County Record Office: the official archive service for County Durham and Darlington
- Home >
- Family History >
- More Family History Sources >
- Adoption
- Accessibility statement
- Contact us
- About Us
- Our Records
- Visit Us
-
Family History
- Birth, marriage and death records
- Census records
- Parish registers
- Place names index
- Nonconformist Church Registers
- Wills
-
More Family History Sources
- Adoption
- Army Records
- Bankruptcy
- Bishops' Transcripts
- Cemeteries and crematoria
- Coal Mining
- Directories
- Divorce
- Durham Obituaries
- Education
- Electoral Registers for County Durham
- Emigration/Immigration
- Family History Organisations
- Guild Records
- Hearth Tax Returns
- Jewish Community
- Land Tax Assessments
- Law and Order
- Libraries
- Marriage Licences, Bonds and Allegations
- Medical Records
- Military Records
- Missing Persons
- Newspapers
- Photograph collections
- Poor Law
- Salvation Army Church
- War Memorials
- Gypsy Roma Travellers
- Learning Zone
- Shop
- Collections Search
- Website Help
- Legal Information
-
Exhibitions
- 'Adventurers and Pirates' - Hetton Coal Company, 1820
- Looking back at Consett Steel Works
- Celebrating Gala Day 2020
-
County Durham remembers VE Day 1945
- 'We have come through' - Remembering VE Day 1945
- 9th Battalion DLI: From D-Day to Berlin
- 9th Battalion DLI: VE Day
- 9th Battalion DLI: In Berlin, June - September 1945
- Berlin Victory Parade, 7 September 1945
- Victory Parade at Belsen, 8 May 1945
- The Northern Echo, Victory edition, 9 May 1945
- VE Day and Durham Schools
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Burma 1945
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Rangoon Victory Parade, 15 June 1945
- VE Day and the Durham Miners' Association
- County Durham celebrates VE Day
- Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
- Soldier: Victory Souvenir edition, 8 May 1945
- Parade: European Victory edition, 26 May 1945
- VE Day not forgotten by one Spennymoor family
- County Durham celebrates VJ Day
- Victory Day, 8 June 1946
Adoption
Information about adoption records for County Durham and who to contact.
Adoption before 1927
Before 1927 there was no legal process of adoption in England and Wales. It is very difficult to trace any earlier records of private fostering arrangements.
Adoption from 1927
The Adoption of Children Act, 1926 introduced legal adoption in England and Wales. It came into operation on 1 January 1927.
Find information about records of adoption which took place from 1927 onwards, and who to contact, on the following websites:
Durham County Council ask about adoption.
The independent DFW Adoption agency, based in Durham, is now part of Adoption Matters (from 1 April 2019). Formerly known as the Durham Family Welfare Association, it has acted as the adoption agency of Durham Diocese since 1926. It holds the records of around 10,000 adoptions made in the last 80 years. The records prior to 1976 are very sparse.
Barnardos has advice about children adopted through the Barnardo's charity.
Directgov information about adoption includes advice on tracing and contacting birth relatives and adopted adults.
The Adoption Search Reunion website provides useful information for adopted people who are considering searching or wishing to make contact with their birth family, including brothers and sisters. Adoption Search Reunion also includes details of locating adoption records.