The records are held at The Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in the Memphis and Shelby County room on the third floor., the space that houses the official archival collection of materials about Georgia Tann d the eventual demise of her empire,
Pages 226- 227
That faux-leather bank portfolio, the keeping pace of the disparate clues to Robert's biological history and mysterious adoption is a potent symbol, I've come to realize, Everyone who shows up at our Saturday afternoon gatherings for adoptees and families has their own version of it, Lillian has her tote bag full of records, Connie has her binder, Hanie has her wheelie crate, Brigette carried a notebook straining against the reams of information about the family members she has finally uncovered for her father, James.
A manila folder here, A display board there. And old shoe box.
A plastic tone with a snap-on lid.
The attendees place these items with care of the library's stately antique wooden tables Out reunion group is meeting in the Benjamin L Hooks Central Library, in the Memphis and Shelby County Room of materials about Georgia Tann and the eventual demise of her empire.
But these adoptees 'bibles' are smaller, more personal type of archive. They're filled with decades old records and details of what has often been an excruciating search, bits and pieces of a poignant heritage in plastic sleeves" black and white photos of adoption day; the only picture of birth parents; a newspaper clipping about Tann's misdeeds; records from TCHS, retrieved fro the state of Tennessee at a cost, original birth-certificates, court filings; sometimes letters to and from Tann herself.....
********
ONE OF THE CRUELTIES IS THAT SOME OF THE MOTHERS WERE TOLD, that after a Successful childbirth their babies DIED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!! The hospitals were implicit in this deception. They took advantage of young parents who had no money for a funeral and would say that all they had to do was sign and the hospital would take care of the body.... In this case there had not been any desire to adopt a child out and the parents have no idea that there's a child alive and out there somewhere. Worse some children were STOLEN... And some, estimated 500 did die in the care of her "receiving Home."
page 269 :
An Elmwood Cemetery lane winds its way past both elaborate and simple headstones. The graveyard was founded in 1852 way out in the countryside, to give people a pastoral place where they could retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life. In more than a century, the city has crept near, but the original idea of a garden-like setting remains. Approximately 80,000 people people are buried here in this historic nonprofit cemetery, safe under the watchful eyes of executive director Kim Bearden, who has run it for the past twenty years.
We are here to see only one grave. A resting place that cradles many lives and represents many more.
Nineteen babies registered by Tann as having died in the care of TCHS lie here, their deaths recorded between September 17, 1923 and December 10, 1949. Only nineteen of the five hundred estimated to have died in the care of her system of unregulated boardinghouses and the notorious Receiving Home on Poplar Avenue are remembered here. The monument on the TCHS lot was erected just three years ago, after a historian discovered the communal plot in the cemetery's record books. He pointed out the shame of the graves having gone unmarked for decades, the children, once more, forgotten. The cemetery raised donations for a proper marker.
***
You can pull up past posts on Adoption using the search feature in Google Blogger or by clicking on the label adoptions. I highly recommend using ADOPTION REGISTRIES as a first step.
