Tom Riddle's backstory

[corinthum]

No: HPFGUIDX 68726

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "blaisezz" <blaisezz at y...>
wrote:
Ria wondered:

> 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?
> Given that he was raised in a muggle orphanage, Riddle should have 
> been in a very similar situation to Harry when he recieved his 
> Hogwarts letter aged 11: i.e. clueless. Harry has gradually learnt 
> his own history through the stories of Hagrid and Dumbledore, which 
> suggests that Riddle also must have been told his own background by 
> someone else.
> This gets me on to thinking who this other person is, and how they 
> knew so much about Riddle's past in the first place.(for some reason 
> I keep on coming back to Dumbledore, as despite his hostility and 
> mistrust of Riddle he still knows a lot about him and was present 
> durng his schooling) 

I doubt he had only one source of information regarding his past.  We
have heard many times that Tom Riddle was extremely intelligent, and
I'm sure he went to great lengths to recreate his own history.

According to Tom, he learned the basics about his parents (names, how
he himself was named, the fact that his father deserted his mother)
from those running the orphanage, and I see no reason to doubt this. 
These seem like details a dying mother would tell the orphanage.  

At some point in his life, Tom probably discovered his own ability to
speak to snakes, possibly purely by chance as with Harry.  A little
research regarding Parselmouths would put him on the right track with
the Slytherin family tree business.  It's possible he never had any
absolute confirmation, but was able to match the known facts of
Slytherin's descendants with the little he knew about himself to reach
the conclusion that he was indeed Slytherin's heir.

It is possible Tom even learned some details from his father, for
example why he left his mother in the first place.  He knew where his
father lived, and visited him at least once.  Perhaps some info was
exchanged before Tom killed his father.

So, overall, I don't think Tom Riddle needed any specific confidant at
Hogwarts who helped him discover his past.  His own exceptional
intellect coupled with a strong desire to learn about a family he
never knew would be enough.  

-Corinth