This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Gates Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/BOY.2ACIB/1453 Message Board Post: I know that my birth mother’s name is Catherine Marie Gates and she was born in 1953. I was born on January 4, 1971 at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. My mother is the 1 of 12 children from a large Catholic family from somewhere “up north” (South Dakota or some other place with 12 characters – North Dakota, Pennsylvania or Rhode Island – but I have evidence that points toward South Dakota). She lived with her sister and two of the youngest of the 12 siblings after her mother passed (circa 1967). Later she moved in with her brother and family in Atlanta. She attended Therrell High School in Atlanta, going by Cathy Gates, and may have met my father there. She was supposed to graduate in August of 1970 (maybe an early graduation). She entered the Florence Crittenton Home in Atlanta on October 2,1970 and lived there until I was born. Most, but not all, of what I know about my birth mother came from the “non-identifying information” that I had requested and received from the Georgia Department of Human Resources, Adoption Reunion Registry. Through this agency I was also able to have someone search for my mother. Cathy was located and I received the news around Christmas 1997 that she didn’t want to be contacted, which completely broke my heart. I can only assume now that my mother is married and has a family of her own that she has not told about me. Furthermore, I doubt that anyone else in my (maternal) birth family knows about me other than her brother and his wife. The non-identifying information implied that my birth father knew about me but I cannot be sure about his parents or anyone else in my paternal birth family. I would like to meet anyone from my birth family (aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and hopefully one if not both parents). I have more information about my mother and my birth family that I will not list here but if any of this fits or sounds vaguely familiar please contact me at [email protected] More information is posted at http://www.mindspring.com/~kwhite1/Jen's_Adoption_Home.htm I have made innumerable search postings for anyone in the Gates family. I most often return to Adoption.com and my posting there may be located at http://registry.adoption.com/records/107821.html