Peggy was born in 1918 in the East End of London according to her birth certificate which named only the mother of the child. She was ‘given away’ at birth to a couple from Dorset.  None of Peggy's living relatives knew why she had been given away and why Dorset. Peggy died in 1997, sadly not knowing her heritage. So why and who gave her away? 

We started with the birth certificate that gave us the full name of the mother (no Father named) and an address in London at the time of the birth. We also found a christening record which identified the father - but the father had the same surname as the mother. We were confused - father name at Christening but not the birth record!

Our research led to a lady that matched the mothers name who was born and raised in Dorset, some 10 miles away from where Peggy was bought up.  By process of elimination of our clients DNA, we were left we a small number of matches on the maternal side. 

We were able to identify a direct connection to this lady in Dorset through DNA matches between our client and the descendants of the siblings of this lady. We'd identified Peggy's mother - Mable. Mable was born in 1897 in Dorset, she was 21 when she had Peggy. Mable had 5 brothers and 2 sisters. We started to trace and communicate with the descendants of each sibling who were now spread across the world, including New Zealand.  

Mable had married in 1919 but not the father of Peggy, she had a another child in 1920 (a boy) before emigrating to New Zealand with her husband, her parents and a couple of her siblings. Peggy’s mother died in the 1970’s, her half brother was also deceased, but he had three children, a boy who tragically died early his life, plus two daughters.  Peggy was Andy's Grandmother!! 

Key to Photographs: 

Middle Right  - My grandmother Peggy on her wedding day

Bottom Left - Peggy as a child.

Bottom Centre and Bottom Right - Mable with Family in New Zealand.

(All photographs reproduced with the permission of the owners)