SEARCH FOR HERITAGE - ORPHANAGE - ADOPTION - LOVING HOME Research Path Heritage Search 1 - Two

Since I had the real names of both birth parents for the man who wants to know of his heritage on his birth mother's side, the first thing I did was check the census records.  I found the father and his family on them right away. One could easily go back four generations or more using those. Since the focus is on his birth mother's line I wouldn't have bothered with his father's side except that there was a possibility of bigamy.  

I found only one marriage attributed to the birth father, the marriage he stayed in for a lifetime. He was clearly married when he had the affair that brought a son into this world. I do not think there was any marriage or divorce of this man's birth parents and therefore no bigamy as I've found no evidence of it.

Knowing that World War II was brewing, I wondered if the birth father had enlisted. Oddly, I did not find any enlistment or draft records (such as the sign up) for him. Marriage would not have been reason enough to avoid either. Perhaps there was some other reason why not. I'm going to go into more locally held resources than rely on databases. (Update August 13th, 2019 - I did find his military record for WWII on the database called FOLD3.)

I was able to confirm that the birth mother was indeed an orphan from a young age by finding her on both the 1930 and 1940 census in the Catholic orphanage of a large mid-western city. The name of the institution was there on the census, and I was able to find a history of that place and the children they took in. Since the family was Catholic and near a large city, the story goes that her widowed father took her there and that he visited for a while until he died. We knew that she had probably lived there her entire life and no one had adopted her.

The history site that included historical information on the orphanage warned that there was limited information available for genealogical purposes. We may still contact them just to see what they might have. Of course, we would love to know exactly when she was placed there, possibly as an infant, and who signed her in, who took her there, and if they have any notes about visits.

I asked the man if he had his mother's death certificate or birth certificate. He said he did but then got back to me and said he did not. We could get a copy of her death record and her burial record. And I feel this will be essential. As for her birth certificate, that's possible too.  But first I checked to see if an index of birth records for her state and county and the year she was born were available online. They were (though I don't know how comprehensive they are since few people were coming up for her birth year) BUT SHE DID NOT COME UP ON THEM.  (If she was born outside a hospital such as at home with a midwife the birth might not have been registered civilly.)

As always, there is a possibility that records were lost, or that we are encountering misspellings in handwritten or errors on database information. Since she was NOT ADOPTED I don't think we're dealing with a new birth certificate being made for her as happens during legal adoptions. (Birth certificates should be called PARENTAGE certificates as after adoption a new number is given and the new parents names are recorded on it.)

I find it odd that she is not on the birth index for the time and place where she was born. I think we should have the Catholic Diocese archive look for her baptism.

C 2019 Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot
To follow along on this research path, click on the label below that says Research Path Heritage Search 1
This post has been slightly edited for more clarity on August 14, 2019

SEARCH FOR HERITAGE - ORPHANAGE - ADOPTION - LOVING HOME - Research Path Heritage Search 1 - One

I offered to help an adopted person who, in the 1990's, went through two years of living hell to get his original birth certificate. He has memories of being in a Catholic orphanage. It wasn't all bad but then he got out of there before the age of five. He was there for about a year and a half. He was not abused. He got parents who were devout Catholics and is to this day himself devout.  They were good and loving people.

After he located his birth mother, who was still alive, he contacted her and went to visit her. She recognized him instantly and also told him that she had prayed every night of her life for a reunion. From then on she was included in his family, got to know her grandchildren, and even the parents who adopted him accepted her as a member of their family.

He never contacted his birth father. 

His birth mother had herself been in a Catholic orphanage in another state. Her emancipation from the orphanage was like what happens today with many foster children who age out of the system; 18 and nowhere to go.  Today these 18-year-old emancipated foster children find themselves struggling to support themselves in an increasingly expensive world. It's not uncommon for them to become homeless. After turning 18 and being let go by the orphanage she had been in, this gentleman's mother took the train to another city where another of the orphans, who had left a couple years earlier, offered to take her in.  

World War II was brewing.

Having the real names of both his birth parents, I encountered a glowing obituary for his father. Perhaps the man who deserted his mother wasn't all bad, but I had to wonder if the woman he did marry and the many children he had with her ever heard they had a half-brother out there somewhere. 

One of those children apparently pridefully did a big family history on FAMILYSEARCH.  I could easily email him through their system but would not do that behind this man's back.  I promised him that I would not post anything on databases or Internet about our search for more information about his family's origins, especially not identifying information. Nor will I contact them. This is the confidentiality that I can personally promise. I can't guarantee that no one else is working on the same question or family.

I'm going to post on how I'm approaching this. Maybe some of you will want to follow along. To link to the posts on this particular research path, click on the label below that says Research Path Heritage Search 1.

It's his birth mother's side I'm working on and since the orphanage she was in was the intake for Catholic children in a certain mid-west city and the surname is prevalent there, it's first a matter of looking at all the families with that name on census and seeing where she would fit or not in birth order. And also doing that for him. 

His birth mother said that her mother died giving birth to her and there were several older brothers. That her father had visited her every weekend until he died. Then her brothers shunned her. So of course, I want to find a birth certificate for her mother that fits the story.

But ah... One sometimes uncovers lies when doing genealogy and family history research.

Let's all say a little prayer for this situation, this person.  Unlike some persons who were adopted, he is not striving to become part of a family that did not want his birth mother.  Simply he and his wife want to travel to the towns in Europe that his immigrant ancestors left and enjoy that heritage. At least that's the start of it.

C 2019 Ancestry Worship Genealogy Blogspot
To follow along on this genealogy research path click on the label below that says Research Path Heritage Search 1

Note: This post was slightly edited for clarity on August 14, 2019

SHOULD SHE HIRE A RESEARCHER IN POLAND? QUESTION FOR ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY BLOGSPOT

Question:

Hi there.  I'm trying to trace a line of ancestors that came from Galicia, Poland, and am not Jewish.  I joined Jewish Gen and have looked at their databases but wasn't actually expecting anything to come up for me.  Latter Day Saints doesn't have anything useful.  Should I hire someone in Poland to do the research for me?  Any advice would be appreciated.   Anna


Answer:


Anna,

As I understand it there are reliable people in that part of Poland who can walk into archives and do research for you. Before you hire someone though, at least research what archives you can expect the information to be in. Be prepared to hand over - by mail - the research you've done that would lead the researcher to these people, some documentation that you deserve to have the information, such as an explanation in a letter - preferably translated into Polish - on how you are related to them. Present any researcher with a list of the goals you want to achieve and have focused upon. Have a clear idea about how much you can afford and how much time you want to allow for the research to be done. As you know, sometimes information is found very easily and sometimes you have to dig.  There is no such thing as a "rush order" genealogy.

What you are hoping for is someone who knows their way around and has developed a personal relationship with some of the people who work in the state run and church run archives that hold documents. You can always reassess as the project goes on.  Have the person mail you copies of what documents they find, even if this can all be done by e-mail, uploading photos and so on. Be sure that they are checking in with you and giving a progress report at least every other week.

As for how to hire someone who does this professionally and what their background might be, for this I think I would make some phone calls and other inquires based on the region and town where you expect they lived before immigration. JewishGen might be a useful tool for you, since they have groups based on towns and regions and people reporting in when they do heritage tours.  However, consider contacting the priest at the local church for a referral.  Call heritage tour operators, even if you have no plan to go soon yourself, and ask them who they might know there.  Also the Polish Genealogical Society in Chicago might have some leads.  See if you can talk to the people who have hired someone on the phone to get a feel for how it went. 
Yes there are some areas of Poland, some areas all over the world where the Latter Day Saint Missionaries have not been allowed to copy or film.  We are spoiled by the ease of renting films from them instead of traveling ourselves or hiring others.

Wishing you the best on this, Anne!

C 2016 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot

PHILOMENA : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW (IRISH CATHOLIC UNWED MOTHERS AND THE SISTERS OF THE GOOD SHEPERD

This film got 4 Academy Award nominations

and is based on a book by Martin Sixsmith.

 

Obviously well regarded, the true story based on the book by Sixsmith, that was up for Academy Awards such as Best Picture and Best Actress (Judi Dench), is a heartbreaker.

Philomena Lee was an Irish girl sent away to a Catholic charity run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd to have her illegitimate baby.  Many of these girls were from very poor families and very underage.  Some did not survive childbirth.  Let me be clear that as portrayed some of these nuns have a punishing attitude towards women who got pregnant without marriage, in Philomena's case a first love, but it goes without saying in the film that some of them were probably pregnant by rape and incest.  That Philomenia had been searching for the son she gave up and her son, also for her, and that these sisters LIED to both of them, keeping the separation between them, and that by the time Philomenia and Sixsmith did identify her son, it was too late because he had died young of AIDS is especially horrifying.

 

Yet, I need to tell my readers that this experience is not ALWAYS the experience with Catholic Archives and nuns or members of Holy Orders, even as I have waited many years for a branch of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd's to respond to a request.  I've also asked the Catholic Archives to intervene with them for me without success. Simply, their numbers have dwindled down and they do not have the time to look up old records for me, and I frankly do not think I could speed anyone up with the promise of unasked for pay, not even if it was a significant donation. The attitude that the nun in the film has was not just her own, but often the attitude of the culture at the time. Perhaps Irish Catholicism was especially punishing.  Certainly you would not find our present Pope Francis with such an attitude.

 

But as a genealogist I was watching the film hoping for more clues as to how exactly Philomenia's son was found by Sixsmith, and I think I'm going to read the book in case there are some research lessons to be gained by reading it. All films tend to cut through a lot of information in order to get the essence of the story down. I watched a special feature about the real Philomena Lee. and I realized how courageous she was to let her story be told in a journalistic article written by Sixsmith. I take it that funding the travel that he did with this woman may have been funded by a news business and that he was under pressure to reveal what happened, even as Philomenia had mixed feelings about doing so. She also has forgiveness, which for her is healing.

 

For those of you who are Birth Parents or Adopted Children looking to find one another, the various REGISTRIES where you sign up to be matched are probably the first thing to do, and can be quickly successful.Philomenia as portrayed had her mind made up and her head on straight during the search, even as she encountered terrible disappointment; many of you need to be in therapy to deal with the search. I say that because it is not a genealogists place to be leaned on to the point of having to play therapist or be a persons great support through this process and I've had searchers waver and cancel on me unable to handle the process.

 

Depending on where you live, what COUNTY and STATE you were given up for adoption, various rules may apply. In some cases getting identifying information on a parent after a Closed adoption is near impossible BUT the registries cut through all that. A Closed adoption was sometimes how ALL adoptions were done and does not necessarily imply that the situation in which a child was born was especially bad.There are even families who simply gave children they knew they could not support up for adoption because they already had so very many!

 

C2016-2025   Ancestry Worship Genealogy BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved including Internet and International Rights.

 

 

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER PARENT'S MARRIAGE RECORD - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Question:

I sent away for the marriage records (civil) of my aunts, uncles, and parents and grandparents. I wanted the marriage dates and places as well as the mother's maiden names.  Eventually everything came in. My shock was learning that my parent's did apply for a marriage license but there is no record of them actually having got married. I got a note back stating that an extensive search had been made.

I'm sure they did marry. But now I'm not sure they married the same year they got the license.  This is because there's a story about how they got married and then went back to work on Monday, no honeymoon, and that they got married on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. The year on the license and the date I recall they celebrated their marriage doesn't line up with the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday or the story that they met and married in a year. I remember celebrating their Silver Anniversary but I can't remember what year we did!

What can I do to prove they married?

Ruth - Pittsburgh PA


Answer from ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY

Hi Ruth, I checked FAMILYSEARCH which does have SOME records of marriages for Allegheny County - Pittsburgh area - Pennsylvania, just in case, and nothing came up. Sending away was the right thing to do.

I suspect that your parents got married in a local church and the priest didn't send the paperwork in that he should have to the Allegheny County people to make a CIVIL RECORD of it.  But as usual it could simply be a missing, burned up, or otherwise destroyed-missing document.

But there are a few things I want you to do.

First, check the date you remember as their anniversary for several years after that license to see if the dates work for the story.  It might give you a date, it might not.

Second, call and ask Allegheny County this question, "Once a couple applied for a marriage license, was there a time limit that they could use it, say a few months or a year or two, before they would have to apply again?  (This could vary by location, so anyone else reading this, call the location)

Three, check city directories and or census or possibly Social Security APPLICATION, to try and figure out about where they were living.  Then check to see what churches might have been in the area.  Additionally, if the area is right next to another county, then maybe they married in another county.  So you also want to ask, "In PA, if a couple got a marriage license in Allegheny County, could they use it in Washington County?"

Four, If they likely married Catholic, call the CATHOLIC DIOCESE ARCHIVES and ask them if they have records of marriages.  Explain that the CIVIL RECORD does not include evidence that the marriage actually occurred.  Possibly the actual PARISH still has records, but with so many churches closing, I'll bet on the archives first, especially if you cannot be sure of the church.

LINK! http://diopitt.org/department-chancellor/office-archives-and-record-center

I hope this helps!

Christine

C 2015 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy BlogSpot