Sharing names - Tom's story truth or fiction?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 98774

> Jen: You have to wonder where Tom Jr. got his information. 
> Documentation wouldn't be a priority in an orphanage at the 
time of  TR's birth. And we don't know who took him to the 
orphanage, right?  If a mid-wife or someone assisting with the 
birth took Tom Jr.  there, who's to say how much of his family 
history she would even  know?<

Pippin:
I actually researched this once  to find out how orphans of the 
period were typically treated, starting with Great Ormond Street 
because it was the only British orphanage name I knew, on 
account of its connection with Peter Pan. Fortunately a lot of 
people and organizations have put their history on the web.

 I imagine that the Marvolo family kicked their daughter out for 
marrying a Muggle and wouldn't take her back when she wound 
up pregnant and abandoned. The Wizarding world doesn't seem 
much on social services, so maybe she ended up giving birth in  
a Muggle charity hospital. Many of these were connected with 
orphanages.

The orphanage would have tried to get the father to pay child 
support. Often the father was willing to do this to avoid publicity. 
The child's name was changed, the infant was sent to a foster 
family until the age of five or six, and then restored to the 
orphanage. This was horribly traumatic as you can guess. The 
former foster parents were allowed to visit the child but many 
times they couldn't afford it.  

 The child's true name and ancestry were sealed. Tom wouldn't 
have known his real name until his Hogwarts letter came.  But I  
don't suppose   the files of an orphanage would have been safe 
from TM Riddle, so he could have found out who his father was 
that way.  His mother might have left a letter for him explaining 
who she was. But I rather like the idea that Salazar left all sorts
of  goodies in the Chamber for his heir.


Pippin