Greetings from a North Carolina genealogy hound! I have had very little trouble finding ancestors, but I do have a big mystery in the current generation ... You'd think it would be easier to find someone born after legal record-keeping started! Am searching for my father's sister. She was last known to be in California in the late 1940s or early 1950s. She was born September 8, 1923 as Annie Lee Ball in Vance County, (Henderson), North Carolina to Stephen and Mamie Ball. She was the youngest of 8 children. In 1924, her father, Stephen Ball died and her mother, Mamie, gave all the children away to be adopted or fostered. Annie was adopted by Lew and Pearl Finch of neighboring Granville County, (Oxford), North Carolina. They changed her name to Mary Elizabeth Finch. Though adopted, her new family allowed her to visit with several of her siblings during her childhood. Unfortunately, the people who raised my father never allowed him to see or socialize with any of them. In his adulthood, my father found all of them and formed family relationships with them. All except Annie (Mary Elizabeth). By the time he found out where what happened to her, the following scenario had taken place: She grew up and married a man named Curtis Smith of Franklin County (Louisburg) North Carolina in the late 30's or very early 40's. Somewhere near the start of World War II, she and Smith divorced and she joined the WAVES or WACs, possibly as a nurse. I have been led to believe that she trained somewhere around Indianapolis. Rumor has it that her adopted father told her if she divorced Smith, that he would disown her. So she left and they never heard from her again. It is believed that she contracted polio during her military tour which left her with some disability. It has been said that she was sent to the Ozark mountains after her sickness. In the very late 1940s or early 1950s, someone contacted an uncle of mine (one of her blood brothers) and said that she had been involved in an automobile accident in California. My uncle chose not to act on this information for personal reasons not known to us. Because he didn't forward this information or check into it, no one knows what the outcome of that "automobile accident" was. Did she live? Did she die? Where is she? Did she remarry? Was there really an accident, or was this her way of trying to reach her real family? I shudder to think that she was trying to reach the only people that she thought cared, only to be ignored. My father, on the other hand, has spent his entire life asking only that someone find his sister for him. I didn't have the heart to tell him that she had contacted his brother so many years ago, but that he kept it a secret. He is now 80 years old, and the only surviving sibling. Even if we find that she is deceased, he would find relief in knowing what happened to her, and could begin to fit some pieces of her life together. It took him many years to come to terms with what his mother did, but I don't think he'll ever be completely at peace until he finds his siter. A wonderful lady looked up Mary Elizabeth Finch/Smith in the California Death Index. However there are approximately ??? hundreds of them, and ironically, none of them have an NC issued SS #.I am certain that Mary's SS was issued here. I have written to military personnel in St. Louis. After months of waiting, they sent me a request for records form that I had to fill out and return. Again I have waited several months and have no reply to date. I figured I might as well post to the list while I am waiting. Does anyone know what happened to Mary Elizabeth Finch Smith? Any ideas? I do hope to find closure in this situation soon. Many Thanks and Happy Hunting to All of You! Faye Ball Edwards Henderson, North Carolina