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I wasn't even really sure where to post this, but it has been bothering me so I thought I would share. When I was a kid, sometime in the mid 80's, I was at my grandparents house and someone called seeking information about an adoption. My mother talked to them on the phone and I overheard part of the call. Mom didn't have much information and was a bit hesitant to share what she did know. I asked about it, and she told me what she knew. When she was a kid, or maybe teenager, my great-grandmother was assisting in illegal adoption. I didn't know the term at the time, but that is what it was. Expecting girls were sent to "Girl's town" in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. My great-grandmother who lived nearby in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and probably others in the community, would have these girls come live with them. I'm sure the benefit of this to my great-grandmother was a live in maid, and to the girl's was that they got to leave "girl's town" which was a low level juvenile detention type facility. Someone, I don't know who, matched the girls with "adoptive" families. When the babies came, the girls were checked into the hospital under the names of the "adoptive" mothers. No adoption record was ever created because the birth certificate recorded the adoptive parents as the biological parents. I don't know if this helps anyone or not, but if anyone specifically knows they were delivered at the hospital in Shawnee, Oklahoma and are struggling to find records this could be the reason.
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I know this is an old post, but thought I'd share. Yes, it was a Girls Home and later a girls juvenile detention center. Apparently, there was huge adoption ring supported by many of the "good citizens" of Shawnee. I often wondered what the "good citizens" got out of the deal for housing the pregnant girls. (I am a native Oklahoman, and aware of folks who survived the wonderful institution.)I have discovered so much about this terrible place since I have been searching for my real father. My mother was in the Girls home and now after many years of searching for a paternal match to my DNA, running into many stone walls, I'm now approaching the state to see if my mother, as a juvenile, might have been raped while in the Tecumseh Girls home. Apparently, it was nothing for the inmates to be stripped, hogtied and raped regularly. The atrocities are unbelievable.
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Hmmm... I know this is an old thread, but I find it interesting. My parents adopted several children, and one of them - my younger brother - was born in 1965 in Oklahoma. He has never expressed any interest in searching for his birth family, but I wonder if he could have been part of the black market adoption ring!
Last update on November 26, 12:31 pm by lisalu.
So, unless the birth mothers are on a reuntion registry and searching themselves, is there ever ANY way for the adoptees to find their birth mothers??? The birth mothers would be totally untraceable if there was never any record of them.... how devastatingly sad!
I often wondered what the "good citizens" got out of the deal for housing the pregnant girls. (I am a native Oklahoman, and aware of folks who survived the wonderful institution.)
I would be very interested in speaking to any of you who know anything about the doctors that took care of these pregnant girls or the processes these girls had to go through to end up with no baby in the end. I am a genealogist assisting a client who is from a town within 40 miles of Girls Town. She & several others have reason to believe their "stillborns" were adopted out back in and around 1976 . Hard for me to believe there would be 2 adoption baby rings within 40 miles of one another without being connected somehow, but who knows?
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I wasn't even really sure where to post this, but it has been bothering me so I thought I would share. When I was a kid, sometime in the mid 80's, I was at my grandparents house and someone called seeking information about an adoption. My mother talked to them on the phone and I overheard part of the call. Mom didn't have much information and was a bit hesitant to share what she did know. I asked about it, and she told me what she knew. When she was a kid, or maybe teenager, my great-grandmother was assisting in illegal adoption. I didn't know the term at the time, but that is what it was. Expecting girls were sent to "Girl's town" in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. My great-grandmother who lived nearby in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and probably others in the community, would have these girls come live with them. I'm sure the benefit of this to my great-grandmother was a live in maid, and to the girl's was that they got to leave "girl's town" which was a low level juvenile detention type facility. Someone, I don't know who, matched the girls with "adoptive" families. When the babies came, the girls were checked into the hospital under the names of the "adoptive" mothers. No adoption record was ever created because the birth certificate recorded the adoptive parents as the biological parents. I don't know if this helps anyone or not, but if anyone specifically knows they were delivered at the hospital in Shawnee, Oklahoma and are struggling to find records this could be the reason.
So I don’t know how anyone can get in contact with me but I have been looking for a child that my grandmother may have had. The reason I’m saying may is because my grandmother never talked about this, but her sister told me about it. My grandmother was in a group home in the late 60’s in Shawnee Oklahoma and all my great aunts know is that she was pregnant and was taken away because foster kids were not allowed to have children. And came back and was no longer pregnant, they do believe she had the child and just was not allow to see the child. I have more details and would like help with finding my grandmothers oldest child.