Problem regarding a relative who died intestate?? please help if you can....?

[JimKSPeters]

My grandmother was recently phoned by a solicitor and told she was adopted at birth. At 80 this came as a shock. It was her biological aunty however that apparently adopted her. My gran has no birth certificate or adoption certificate and has no knowledge of either. The solicitor said that her biological sister, who she knew as her cousin, has died and she is to share in the estate as the sister didn't leave a will. This will be on the grounds that she has not been adopted; as if she was then she has no claim to any part of the estate.

My question is if they fail to find either document or if the birth certificate is not in the biological mothers name then will my gran still be attributed a share of the estate?

We have no information as to whether she was adopted legally or not by her biological auntie as this was 1927. My Gran has no idea how to proceed. Many thanks. Jim

[themas]

I don't understand. Has the solicitor left it up to your gran to prove she was not adopted? If so, this seems harsh - how can she prove a negative?

If this is not the case, then I think that at this stage she just has to wait for the solicitor to come back to her when he has made more enquiries. I imagine that if no proof is found that she was adopted they will have to assume she wasn't. As regards the birth certificate, I think this would have been in the name of the biological mother unless she was in a relationship at the time and it was put in the name of the father (but that seems a bit unlikely in 1927).