Tom Riddle's backstory

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 68707

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "blaisezz" <blaisezz at y...> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
> I was just wondering how exactly Tom Riddle found out his own back 
> story. 
> In COS he knows he was named after his father and grandfather, knows 
> his mother(and therefore himself) was Slytherin's heir and knows that 
> his father deserted his mother when he was only a baby.
> My question is how?

Harry observed the following conversation betwen young Riddle and Dippet 
when he travelled into Tom's past in COS:

"You are Muggle-born?"

    "Half-blood, sir," said Riddle. "Muggle father, witch mother."

    "And are both your parents -?"

    "My mother died just after I was born, sir. They told me at
the orphanage she lived just long enough to name me - Tom after my
father, Marvolo after my grandfather."

So it sounds like Dumbledore didn't know much about Riddle's background, 
he had to ask about it, himself, and Tom only knew what the orphanage staff 
told him.  I recall some other point where Riddle reveals that he did have 
surviving family on his father's side, but that they rejected him because of his 
wizarding background.