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
