I am searching for information about an orphanage or children's home in Tampa that handled adoptions in the early to mid 1920's. Supposedly my father-in-law was adopted from an orphanage. He died in 1963 and his adoptive parents are dead so no information from them. None of the few remaining family members have any information. So I don't have a name f of an orphanage with which to begin. Suzanne Collins Matson

Suzanne, Below are several ideas. The ones toward the end may be your best bet though: This might be a shot in the dark, but you may want to check with the law library downtown and ask them if there is any reference book which would list the legally run orphanages that existed in Tampa in the 1920's. Another shot in the dark would be to call child and family services and see if they could at least point you in the right direction...you'll probably have more luck with the law library though as CFS is as busy and understaffed as any state's is. Another shot in the dark would be to call any of the existing adoption lawyers and see if they can suggest an office or location that might have that information. Shot #4 and then I'm out of ideas....ask someone to check a couple of the phone books available from the '20's ... they have them at the down town library and I think at the repository for University of South Florida... and see if there are any that are listed. The problem you are going to have .... as I understand if true of most adoptions ... is if you don't have a "real" date of birth and/or birth name. You might be able to go to the courthouse downtown and see if you can check the birth certificates for every male child born on a given day to see if one of them at least has the same first name as your father-in-law. Just thought of something else....is your father-in-law of hispanic heritage or Catholic? Not being nosy, but if such is the case, the Church might be the first stop you need to make. The oldest church that I can think of at the moment is the Catholic church that is downtown. I can't think of the name of it right off the top of my head, but for Catholic Church matters from that time frame, that would be where I would start. However, not all Hispanic's from during that era are Catholic. There was a relatively large population of Baptist Hispanics in the area then. My sister-in-law's husand's family was Baptist for several generations before he was born. There is also a Historical Society downtown now. I've never checked it out myself, but they seemed pretty friendly according to someone who has been down there. I've copied a bit of email that I received from them that I hope you can use. The Tampa Bay History Center is located at 225 South Franklin, across the street from the Tampa Convention Center. We face onto Franklin, and are in the Convention Center parking annex. Our phone number is 813-228-0097. Barbara Ware Tampa Bay History Center email: thistory@gte.net web site: http://www.tampabayhistorycenter.org Phone: 813-228-0097 Fax: 813-223-7021 Another thing is that some doctors back then handled the adoptions themselves so that they baby was transferred from the birth parent to the adoptive parents right there. Kathy in FL mamkmm2@prodigy.net ----- Original Message ----- From: <SCMATSON@aol.com> To: <FLHILLSB-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2000 8:08 PM Subject: [FLHILLSB] Orphange or children's home in Tampa > I am searching for information about an orphanage or children's home in Tampa > that handled adoptions in the early to mid 1920's. Supposedly my > father-in-law was adopted from an orphanage. He died in 1963 and his > adoptive parents are dead so no information from them. None of the few > remaining family members have any information. So I don't have a name f of > an orphanage with which to begin. > > Suzanne Collins Matson > > > ============================== > Genealogy calendars, guestbooks and more: > Visit RootsWeb's Resource Center at > http://resources.rootsweb.com/ >