History of St. Anthony's Home for Infants in Kansas City, MO

Hello, I went to KC, I live in CA, last June because I had to see where I was born. I did post a long history of St. Anthony's. In short, the hospital which was called St. Vinvent's, when I was born in 1946 ( two days before New Year's Day)...is now gone. It is a parking lot. And the grounds are still beautiful..the orphanage, ST. Anthony's is gone too and there is a long fence. The only building which still does stand is what once was the residence for the mom's until the infants were born... I saw that and it is a brick building... there is now a newer building there but the place, which took up a city block then, is now a sort of transition place for folks ( men) who are recovering from alcohol or drugs or have that post traumatic stress disorder...the ladies there were helpful in showing me around. If you go there, do so in the day time. The neighborhood once was a lovely place with Victorian homes andnow is a bad neighborhood..get out by sunset..it is a crack haven I was told. Now that said, there are no records there from any adoptions. To start, I would suggest calling the court in Kansas City, MO. However, you need to be aware that MO has rather tough laws regarding searches. It is your mother who must make the effort to locate information about her son. You can't do that for her. On the other hand, if your mom is deceased, perhaps they will consider it but what I had to do before any non id information would be released was to either have my parents persmission or if deceased, I had to produce certified copies of the death certificates. The non id information cost me $50.00. I don't know it that is the current charge or not at present. Apart from that, what documents does your mother have in her possession regarding reliquishment of her son? She will need her paper work if she has any. It will help a lot if she gave the child a name and has his birthdate etc...that is a place to start. On the non id info, she will get simply what she most likely already knows...her description and that of the father...but the court will not tell you where the boy is..they do not act as a search agency and they may tell you to contact the agency through which the adoption took place. I'll bet since it was St. Anthony's, Catholic Charities had something to do with placement procedures in KC. In addition I know of a searcher who can do MO searches for you. I do not know what she charges but she is well thought of by those of us born in MO and if you want that info you should PM me. I have also another suggestion that I could share in PM as well. And there is a member of the forums here who has the screen name Searchguru. YOu can find many of her helpful posts on the threads here. I have seen her suggestions of locations to contact for various states and that is a good step off place too. The task of a search takes for some of us a long time....so you have to have patience. This is not easy. Back to contacting the court....if your mom has a reason such as something important in a medical way that needs to be shared with the adoptive family, she should make that clear and they may be able to be more helpful. I did not use the court.. I used a CI ( confidential intermederiary) ...if you read many comments around these threads, you will see some have had great results while others have not...so check them out....read all you can...and be very sure what you are doing and the reasons why. This is very serious business in the world of the triad...I can't tell you strongly enough how serious this is and there are consequences sometimes that we don't expect. This is not a lecture ...just benefit of my own experiences. PM me for more information. There are others here who are very helpful and the group of posters here are all understanding and when things get hard..boy we support one another. It is it's own little family here and we look after one another. It is a safe place and a good place to be. Good luck.. I hope I have helped and let me know if there is anything else I can do at least to point you towards someone who can help in ways I can't. I am not a searcher...who knows maybe one day I will be..