My mystery involves a black market adoption in which all or part of the non-identifying adoptive information may be false. The birthmother was allegedly 23 years old; resided in Nyack, NY; was born in VA; was a retail secretary; and was Jewish. Hospital records were in the name Virginia Lassiter, but the adoption papers were signed Betty Lassiter. Virginia/Betty gave birth to a daughter on 29 August 1942 that she named Mary Lassiter. Mary is not a Jewish name. I'm listowner of the LASSITER mailing list at Rootsweb. The majority of the listmembers are WASP, and we have a few descendants of LASSITER slaves. LASSITER doesn't appear to be a Jewish name, either. Both Emanuel Loebel from NYC, the attorney who handled the adoption, and Dr. Jerome Dana Niles of Delaware, the doctor who delivered the baby, are deceased, and their records have allegedly been destroyed. Dr. Niles had at least three private Maternity Homes.....one in Nyack, NY; one in Middletown, DE; and one in PA. Great pains were taken to hide the identity of the birthmother. However, after the adoptive father died, two pictures of the birthmother were found hidden in his belongings. The adoptive mother confirmed that this was the birthmother and then had a nervous breakdown. It appears that the adoptive father may have also been the birthfather, as he's the man in one of the pictures. Virginia/Betty's daughter has problems that the doctors haven't been able to diagnose. Virginia/Betty's grandson was recently diagnosed with cancer. It is critical that we find this woman or her descendants to get medical information. Please take a look at the pictures on http://members.aol.com/bamamama. The woman in the pictures is beautiful and appears to be wealthy. I have the strangest feeling that I've seen her in an old movie. She looks so familiar. Who is she? Judy