• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Old document queries

I Am Nico

I Am Nico

master brummie
I have a copy of a 1918 transaction document which bears a 6d National Insurance Stamp with signatures over it. I have looked at pictures of 6d stamps of that period but they are not the same. Mine has a crown on it.
I would like to know what the stamp was for and why it was a National Insurance stamp and not and ordinary stamp. The document concerns the care of a child passing to the care of others. It is in copperplate but with odd grammar and bad spelling. It appears to me not be a legal document but a private one masquerading as one. As anyone any ideas about the using of such stamps? Thanks. Nico
 
Hi Nico, you may do best by taking a photo of it & E-m to enquiries at www.rpsl.org.uk/ or simply send it snail mail to The Royal Philatelic Society of London, 4 Devonshire Place. London W1G 6JY they should know all about it being the oldest "Stamp" experts in the World, 1868 I think, good luck, John Y
 
Hello John, I wondered if any of the Forum knew why they would use particularly a National Insurance Stamp on a document? Would that have made a written transaction legal and binding rather than an ordinary stamp? I will do as you have advised anyway, thank you. Nico
 
Hello Phil,

Yes this is the same stamp. I will do more research. My thinking was the stamp was put on to make the document look more official as it was to do with an adoption, for the price of the administration as if it were a legal document.
Nico
 
Hi again Nico & good work by that layabout (Retired) Phil,, my thought is that the Stamp ( or any official Stamp of UK ) with a signature across it could not be "copied" photo/lithographic or any reproductive format of 1918 era to produce an authentic legal transaction, so its not masquerading to make it look official,, I think it is official and I believe that Lawyers used to put stamps/signatures on documents (Wills etc ) so Adoption papers would be in that category eh!,, regards JohnY
 
There was no official adoption until 1927/8, so perhaps this document was the next best thing, so that it was 'official' rather than the child just being handed over?
 
Hi,

As well as being a protection against a forged signature, it would of course automatically
pay the government Stamp Duty to validate the document.

Kind regards

Dave
 
Hello everyone, thanks for the information. I see what you mean about forged signatures but knowing what I know now I am wondering if they broke the law because....
the document is written in a copperplate style and signed by the man claiming that he is the parent of the child, although he was not, nor was he married to the woman who had signed as being his wife. She WAS the child's mother but unamrried. She could have been his common law wife. The mother did not sign her full name and not her correct surname. Although it is an old document I think some of the grammar is incorrect and the writer has made 2 spelling errors. One in one of the adopter's names where he has it written correctly further on. Could the word 'signed' have been spelt as syned then in 1918?
But going on my own adoption documents 40 years on there were many factual grammtical and verbal errors in them some which caused much heartache and suffering for all concerned. I would have hoped that now they would not be allowed to get away with it, but saying that,when I did get my documents within the last 10 years, our local adoption agency made some huge mammoth errors which would have prevented me tracing my birth family, had we not done our research before hand. I received a verbal and a written apology from them and the 'guilty party' asked me if I wanted them to undergo a disciplinary.
I would be grateful if anyone has any opinions on the legalities of the 1918 document and does anyone know if the adoptees had had to pay a fee to adopt? Nico
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top