Tommy Riddle's birth (was:Re: No Sex, Please, We're British)

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 83878

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Arya" <dequardo at w...> wrote:
> 


Arya: 
> Um, let's not forget the fact that, well, duh--he has the same name 
> as his father!!!  
> 
> "My name is Tom Riddle...hmmm, I should look up any other people
> (muggles) with the name Riddle to see if I might have some 
> family....oh, look here!  It says there is a Tom Riddle in Little 
> Hangleton...hmmm...  


Geoff:
Prior to the change in legislation in (I think) the mid-80s, it 
wasn't as easy as that.

I have indicated in a previous post that my wife was adopted and we 
tried to find her biological mother about 1980. Usually, if a child 
remained in an orphanage or was adopted, a new birth certificate 
would be issued with any changed name and the original details 
remained unavailable. Initally, by chance my wife knew where she was 
born and her original name so we visited the area and found someone 
who had known the family but that didn't lead very far. Now that 
would be a first hurdle for TR. The UK may not be anywhere as big as, 
say, the US, but it can be devilishly tricky to trace an individual 
name. We were told that it was thought that the family had moved 
within the locality of North London so we waded through telephone 
directories and ringing people on the off-chance there might be a 
connection. In the end, we contacted the DHSS (Department of Health 
and Social Security) to see if any one of my wife's mother's name had 
an accounts record. We were told that if we sent a letter to the 
Department, they would forward it to the person concerned who might 
or might not choose to reply but in no circumstances would they 
release an individual's details directly to an outsider. In our case, 
the person concerned did choose to do to contact us in return.

My point is that, even if Tom retained his given names, he couldn't 
just find a name at random at the drop of a hat. In my own area of 
West Somerset, the telephone directory covering about 50,000 people 
has 15 Riddles in it straight away.... 

I lean perhaps to the theory which one poster suggested that he used 
magic to find them. The fact that they were killed when he was at 
Hogwarts adds to this. Knowing his dark character, I suspect that 
once he /did/ know where they lived, he was off pronto to sort them 
out and get his revenge.

Geoff