Question of the Week: Are there adoptions in your family tree? [closed]

Question

Are there adoptions in your family tree? Please answer below or click here for a high-res image for sharing on Facebook or other social media.

(For privacy reasons, please do not give information on living people.)

PS. Do you have an interest in helping adoptees learn about their family history? See our Adoption Angels Project.

Comments

Yes, my grandfather was adopted. I met some of his half-siblings at his funeral. It turns out his birth mother was also adopted. No one seems to know anything about my great-grandmother's birth parents.

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Yes, a nephew and a Grandson.  Nephew was a 1970 closed adoption, but my grandson's is very open. He knows and has all ways spent time with each of ,  both   come down at least once a year and he just spent a week in NYC with his biological father. Last year he spent a week with his Biological mother and her family.. One set of grandparents come down every Christmas, and they are all considered part of OUR family.

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I was adopted at the age of 3-3 1/2.  In my late 20's I went searching for my Father and found him but he didn't know of my mothers where-abouts. (Passed in 1994). So Then i set out to find out about a half brother I had been told about. I decided to take a DNA test at the insistance of an aquaintance.( Who actually turned out to be a third cousin) I did  not find the half brother that I was looking for but actually found 3 half brother and my real mothers name ( Passed in 1971).

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I've been working on a tree for over 10 years on Ancestry.com in tree "Bjorge". In the 1910 United States Federal Census, it states that my grandfather (Noble Jellum, born 16 Apr 1906) is the Adopted son of the head of household. I've heard stories about this but I've not been able to find any facts. I was told that my Great Grand Mother Clara Paaverud was raped along with other girls in the area and he was sent to prison. At the time they lived in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. As a result clara married Helge Jellum and they moved away to Gresham, Oregon, as stated in the 1910 Census.

My oldest sister (Diana) was also adopted by my Father after our Mother married my father. Diana was born in a home for unwed mothers in Portland, Oregon on 22 Dec 1946. At the time our Mother was going to give Diana up for adoption but changed her mind and got her back. In Dec 1948 Mom Married my Father Wallace Bjorge and he adoped Diana. Again this is all the information I have at this time.

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I was adopted from a Jewish family to a Scottish family.  I have met some of the Jewish family BUT my maternal grandmother converted to from Catholic to marry.

Very little is known of her family.

I recently came across the marriage certificate of my maternal great grandparents.

I would love some help on this.

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Yes. My Grandaunt Elvena Blanch. She was the last child of my Great-grand parents Demetrius and Clara Comstock Blanch. Clara died shortly after Elvena was born and was adopted by Ellery and Elvena Davis Drew. Her name was changed to Blanche Elvena Drew. She grew up and married Clarence Dennison in 1915 and they had 5 children. She died after an illness of several weeks according to her obituary. She was 39 years old.

Answer 1

Yes! My great grandmother was adopted.  We still don't know if spinster 'Aunt Mary White' is actually any relation.  We never knew anything about our great grandmother's parentage, but through research and DNA we have discovered that she went to live in Glengarry area of Ontario as a toddler, and years later her father remarried.  His second family knew about her, a bit, but she died very young and we never had any history conveyed to us.  We didn't know about the second family, obviously.

Comments

Such an interesting, well-written story.

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Thanks! 

Answer 2

UM YES??  LOL  My mother was adopted.

My mother did a DNA test last year (2018) and we were finally able to find her paternal family. We knew her maternal family since her mothers name was stated on her original birth certificate.

If you go back through various weekend chats since May of 2018, you will see the story of my mothers adoption, and DNA journey.

Since my mother is still living, you cannot access her profile - sorry!!

Answer 3

Yes. My cousin told me that her mother Lorraine had been adopted and found out her birth parents before she died. I have no idea who these people were. I'm hoping one of my cousins will come along and fill in the blanks.

Answer 4

My maternal grandfather (living) was adopted. Although he was reunited with his biological parents around a decade ago, I have little to do with him and was not able to contact him to ask who they were. I was eventually able to figure out their identities with DNA a few months ago; they ended up marrying 19 years after his birth.

Answer 5

Yes!! My sister-in-law had 4 natural children then adopted 2 girls from Guatemala and another girl from the U.S.A.!!!!

Answer 6

I used to tell my brother that he was adopted, but I don’t think that counts here! 

No way he was adopted. He looks just like dad.

Comments

We used to tell my younger sister she was adopted I found out years later that she had believed us!

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When I was young Pip my older sister used to tell me mom found me by the side of the road and took me in. That was her reason I was tall and skinny, not like most of the women in my family. We found out years later my dad gave her his name - she wasn't his biological daughter. I don't know if he actually adopted her or not but I've seen both birth certificates.

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My niece, as a teen, told her father, "I'm sure I was adopted!" He, very seriously said, "Yes you were....... but they gave you back."  ;-)

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Hahahahaha!!

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My husband is one of six children,  Amy, the youngest, is 16 years younger than the oldest.   Since one in six people in the world  (at the time) were Chinese,  she was told she was an adopted Chinese baby....

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Now that’s funny!!

Answer 7

Yes, Me!  And until the past 12 months I have never been interested in my Biological family (apart from odd medical questions). However, my mother is encouraging me to explore my biological roots, as she deteriorates into ill health at 85. So three weeks ago, I sent off the form to obtain my full birth certificate from the UK.

I'm in the age group where I need to get New Zealand Social Services to offer me counselling and the certificate gets sent to them, to release to me.  Whereas, all I'm thinking about is how I'm going to show it properly on Wikitree

Answer 8

I have a nephew who is adopted. We never think of him as adopted, just part of the family. It was never a secret though.

Answer 9

Yes, my father is an adoptee. Through DNA I have identified his 4 grandparents ( all long deceased) but have not been able to narrow down to his parents.

My mother’s paternal grandfather was also adopted, DNA is much harder to follow for him, especially since he comes from an area with high endogamy.

Answer 10

I was adopted, my husband was adopted, his birth father was adopted, and my paternal grandfather was apparently an NPE who also assumed a new identity about 1912.  (I found my parents but am stuck on my paternal grandfather)  Everyone is/was in the USA.

Answer 11

Yes I am both biological parents are living.

Answer 12

When I saw this question, I thought I can not write on this, since I have no one to write about, but these challenges make me actually think about my family. I started writing on my grand uncle Ray for Rich Man, and I realized that his being adopted by Col. William B. Rogers and his daughter, Carrie Rogers Clark, was the reason he had the opportunities in life that he had. His family had moved to Missouri, and he worked as a child selling newspapers. When they moved back to Iowa they left him with the owner of the newspaper, who had a daughter that had lost her husband and son in 1893. Ray was three years younger than the child Carrie Clark lost. Ray had to go off to WWI, but as soon as he got back they made sure that he finished high school, and he inherited their property and newspaper business. Uncle Ray was a very kind and generous man, and he was able to help his sisters from his original family and his wife's family, my maternal family, at several various times. This is Ray when he was young.

Comments

What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing!

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Mindy, thank you for your sweet comment. Uncle Ray would love WiKiTree. I remember that he and my Aunt Ruth hired a genealogist.

Answer 13

Supposedly, my great-great-grandmother, Amelia (Senz) McNamara was adopted (or maybe it's Sens, Zenz, or Zens...). She is quite the mystery even without the possible adoption. She died when my grandmother was about 7. Her death certificate has her father as John Senz, but census records show her father as Peter Senz, with John Senz as her brother. It also says she was born in Ontonagan, Michigan, but I can find no evidence that the family ever lived there. They did live in New York, however, and there's an Onondaga, New York, which I could see getting confused. She was born the year before the state of Michigan started issuing birth certificates. She married in the late 1880s, although I can't find the certificate. Then the whole Senz family disappears around that time. I can't find a single immediate family member besides her after the 1890s.

Comments

I can see how "Ontonagan" and "Onondaga" could be confused, but not "Michigan" and "New York".  Your post got my attention because I live in Onondaga County, New York.  Not sure how to help you, though.

Answer 14

Yes, I was adopted, as well as the majority of my half-siblings. I found my birth family in 2000, and subsequently found out I was the oldest of 8 (known) children of my birth mother - none of whom she managed to raise herself. Over the next couple of years I found all of my half brothers, but am still searching for my only half-sister. My birth mother passed away early in the year 2000, before I found one of my uncles. All of my half-brothers are alive so I cannot give you details on them. I'm still trying to pin down who my biological father is, so it is possible he is still alive.

There have been a few distant cousins as well, who were adopted, and a few people further back in my tree who adopted their sibling's or friend's children after the children's parents perished or disappeared.

Answer 15

My great Grandfather Clarence Stockwell was adopted into the Stockwell family in the Sandusky, Ohio region. His father was Louis Bomgel and his father was Philip Bomgel from Germany. However, Wikitree has no information of these men.

Comments

Hi Tim!  you are welcome to make profiles for those men!

Cheers

Shirlea

Answer 16

My daughter's 2nd great grandfather was Jesse Leon Goodrich. The only info I have was after he was adopted. He was born Nov 6, 1882 in Pennsylvania. No one seems to know the reason why he was adopted by Asa Bennett and Louisa W. "Dora Ann" Blackwelder Bennett. They seem to have lived in Volusia Co., FL. Jesse Leon Goodrich kept his last name & married Nellie Lorraine Campbell (1889-1976) on Nov 29, 1906 in Ormond Beach, FL. Their son Collie Leon "CL" Goodrich was born Nov 12, 1906. Jesse Leon Goodrich died from the "Spanish Flu" on Oct 18, 1918 in Florida.

I have a beautiful pic of him & Nellie (with I think baby Daisy) 1908. I just don't know how to post it.

Jennifer Shortell (Stephens)

Comments

Jennifer, I see that you have a photo on your grandfather’s profile page. You will need to use a photo that is like his on a profile. Then you go to where the photo has the URL with the jpg at the end at the top of the photo page. Copy the URL. Then when you are using the answer box, you will see on the little icon at the top right, 5 over, a picture of a mountain in a little box. Click on it and a space will come up to put the URL in. Make sure it is not too big, by putting a width in the box on the left, try 550. Then click OK. Thank you for your answer—Hope this helps.

Answer 17

Yes, I'm adopted and I have a DNA match that was also adopted.  We have identified her father and are in the process of narrowing down her mother.

Answer 18

Yes. My mother, who is now deceased, was adopted in a closed adoption in California. She always wondered who her birth mother was; the circumstances of her birth and adoption. At the time of her passing, the technology available for searching wasn't what it is now. I have always wanted to know as well. Through DNA testing I discovered who her father, who is also deceased, was by my matching with his grandaughter. My mother and his daughter are half siblings. Unfortunately my half-aunt's side was estranged from him so I wasn't able to get answers that would lead to my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandfather's family is quite large and well established so I've enjoyed researching my roots there.

The challenge in discovering my maternal grandmother is consuming. There are two individuals who are adoptees that have genetic links to each other as well as to me. They were both born within a few years of my mother and all in the same city in CA. Their profiles both state that they are looking for their birth parents. I've had little to no response from them. I'm sure they have their reasons, but it's frustrating.

Answer 19

We have a family member that adopted a spouse's children, thinking he couldn't have any. At age 81 he found a biological daughter (or rather, she found him). Her mother had not told him, just put her up for adoption. What a crazy world we live in!

Answer 20

Yes. My great uncle's wife, Julia (Dow) Blackwelder, was adopted. I don't know anything about her biological parents. But I know her adopted parents were David & Lela (Kiser) Dow.