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My mother was adopted at the age of two or three, and doesn't really remember her bmom. She was raised in a white family (adopted by her bdad's cousin), and never seriously considered that she wasn't white. She really believed she was their child. Except strangers always asked her what tribe she was from. Also, she remembers now in retrospect that her amom always made nasty comments about her hair (they made her curl it) and teeth and skin tone. No one ever told her she looked pretty as a child. She also wasn't allowed to wear red (still not sure why), although their other (biological) daughter was.
My sister and I don't look like our mother - our friends always thought that WE were adopted. But anyway, I think her story sounds really strange, and just wanted to know if anyone else had that kind of experience. Also, is it unusual (that is, if my mother is indeed half Native) for such children to be adopted out at that age, and by relatives no less?
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Thank you for the encouragement. You are so right - it's very hard to find out later in life about an adoption.
My mom's birth certificate has only the adoptive parents names. The document from the hospital (which we probably weren't supposed to have - I think the amother sent it over to us by accident, years ago) is very strange. My mother thinks her amother just took a blank form and filled it out herself (thus, no doctor's signature). That would have been easy enough, since her amother used to work there as a nurse. I wrote to the county court, where my mom grew up (but I don't know for sure that she was born there!) I haven't gotten a reply, and that was ten months ago. My mother's afamily has relatives who work at different departments of the county court, so maybe that route is a dead end...
Black market babies... hmm. Terrible, that such an expression even exists. Have you ever heard of a situation where the money flow went the other way? That is, where one of the birth parents (or birth grandparents) paid someone to take the child? I think that's what happened in my mom's case.
-raduga
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HI RADUGA.... YOUR MOMS STORY IS AS CONFUSING AS MINE! LETS SEE IF I HAVE IT STRAIGHT. YOUR MOM WAS RAISED THE FIRST 3 YEARS BY HER MOTHER..WHICH IS NATIVE AMERICAN. SHE WAS THEN GIVIN TO HER AMOM WITH EXCHANGE OF MONEY. THE MONEY WAS PAID TO THE AMOM.(MAYBE FOR HER CARE/ or MONEY TO PAY FOR THE ADOPTION?) THEN SHE WAS RAISED VERY CRUELLY BY HER AMOM. HER BIRTHCERTIFICATE SAYS HER AMOMS NAME ON IT. WHAT DATE DOES IT SAY..IT WAS REGISTERED...WHAT YEAR? THE YEAR SHE WAS BORN? OR THE YEAR THAT SHE WAS 3 YEARS OLD? WHAT STATE DO YOU THINK SHE WAS BORN IN ? THE DOCUMENT SHE HAS FROM THE HOSPITOL...WITH NO DOCTORS SIGNITURE....IS IT THE KIND WITH THE BABY FOOTPRINTS OR WEIGHT? DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS ONE ORGINAL BIRTHCERTIFICATE AND ONE AMENDED. IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAVE THE AMENDED ONE. THE ORIGINAL IS PROBABLY LOCKED UP ..ACCORDING TO WHAT STATE ITS IN. LOOK AT THE NUMBERS ON THE B.C. UNDER STATE FILE NUMBER. WHAT ARE THE FIRST 3 NUMBERS? THESE NUMBERS SHOULD SHOW YOU WHAT STATE SHE WAS BORN. THE WEB SITE WITH THE STATES NUMBERS IS [url]www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/5206/num.html[/url] HUGS JANET
Thank you for the advice about the numbers on the birth certificate. I will definitely check that out when I go home, or maybe I'll tell my mom so she can check it out. The document from the hospital was supposed to have footprints, birth weight, etc, but none of that was filled out. I think the year on her birth certificate is wrong, but not the year she turned three - I think her aparents had to change the year so that it wouldn't look like she was born six months before her little sister. The month and day were certainly wrong - my mom thinks February was the month she came to their house - she remembers there being snow. And she also remembers that they took away a little pearl ring she had, and told her that pearl wasn't her birthstone, but rather amethyst was. She doesn't know for certain that her mother was Native American, but from her appearance (people often ask her what tribe she's from) and comments made by her a-parents, she has come to this conclusion.
I'm sorry to hear that your story is confusing, too. I hope your a-family wasn't cruel, though. Cruel and confusing is a terrible combination!
My mother's story is about the same.. My mother was taken by the state at the age of three,her bmother didn't want to give her up.. the adoption wasn't talked abt in the home.my mother is 64 now,too late to know her bparents.It's really sad how they did things back in the early days..what gets me is that they want so much money to do searches for the original bcertificates.. rockmaiden4
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We didn't get lucky enough to get any numbers. the adoption papers listed the home as custodian, not the parents names.The adoption took place in 1942.We were told the orphanage kept records, but it burned down not long after the adoption...I was told that the adoption might be listed in the archives of the area newspaper where the adoption took place..something to to with parental rights....Teresa
HI SHAGGY...... ARE THERE 3 NUMBERS BEFORE YOUR BIRTH YEAR NUMBERS? ON MINE IT SAYS 121-51-######. THE 121 MEANS MICHIGAN. ON THE COUNTY LEVEL BIRTH CERTIFICATE (THE WHITE WITH BLACK LETTERS) IT SAYS THE 121- THEN NO BIRTH YEAR. BUT ON THE STATE ONE(BLACK WITH WHITE LETTERS ) IT HAS THE 121-YEAR OF BIRTH-######. HUGS JANET
I, too, am looking for records regarding my grandmother's adoption. I have reason to believe that the rumors of her being Native American and adopted were true. No birth certificate exists for her. She looked Native American, but her own children all had blue eyes leading me to believe that she may have had a white mother and taken from a home for unwed mothers when she was a baby. Finding records dating back to 1894 is difficult and from reading the postings on this site, perhaps impossible.:confused:
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If your searching for Indian birth records, you'll need to do a little family research..there are ways to do this. do you know your grandmothers parents names? sites like Cherokee by Blood will do a search if you have a family name to search by..if she was born on a reservation , she may be listed on the rolls...good luck Teresa
I have written to the BIA to try to find out which of the many Pacific Northwest tribes were near Ocosta, WA where my grandmother was allegedly born. Since we have reason to believe that she was given up at birth we face a moumental task trying to discover her bparents names. Because she produced blue eyed children, I believe that one of her parents was white. There is also the possibility that she came from a home for unwed mothers which would, in my mind, point to a white mother who had a child with a Native American man. I do know her aparents and am trying to trace records that may or may not have been kept about adoptions. My aunt is supposed to have a letter from my grandmother's afather, asking that upon his death, money be given to a particular home for unwed mothers, which is why we suspect that is where they aquired her. On the other hand, family legend had it that my ggrandfather did business on a reservation near to where the family lived and brought the baby home from there. The mystery continues. Thanks for your suggestions. Once I know a tribe/s I may be able to discover adoption proceedures during the 1890s.
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Don't ever give up,my grandmother is 80 this month and looks 50 and we are still trying to find her daughter born in the 40's or early 50's she was said to have red hair at birth and named Connie Sue at birth also,but i dont know if it was all done in Va or NC.my email is grace_30_faith@hotmail.com
Stephanie,your welcome.. I know how you feel, I'm in a search of my own. I was raised around adopted folk all my life. I 'm just getting to know some of my blood kin. It's a great feeling to know that I have family, and can make a connection. I'm still searching for my mother's folks, she was born on a reservation.She'll soon be 62. I keep praying for the day that we find them.We are in a process of a search right now. I have both Choctaw and Cherokee connections. And that alone makes me smile... Teresa