Drake Family Mysteries

Location: Wisconsin, United States
Surnames/tags: Drake Whalen Whaling

I have a brick wall ancestor and was curious if you might direct me in the best path to discovering this mystery? I have been doing some research on my great great grandfather, George Arlo Drake, who was adopted by a family by the name of Hamilton Peter and Caroline (Webb) Drake from MN, presumably in 1874ish? I have a census record that shows that the Drake family had a young boy names William Whaling who was one year old in the 1875 census and a son named George Drake, who was 6 years old in the 1880 census. We dont really know where William/George (we’re assuming he’s the same person) came from or who his bio-parent were etc...On the census record william/george’s parents are listed as coming from NY, but both Hamilton and Caroline were born in MN The family rumor is that perhaps his mother’s name was Mary who had twins and had to give one up because she was very young. We presume she was an immigrant to ellis island from Ireland. That’s about what we know. Any help is appreciated!