Hi Nova, I just wanted everyone to know that no one from this list has ever snubbed me in any way. You all are some of the most generous, encouraging and helpful people it has been my privilege to be associated with. I can't begin to thank you all enough for all the help you have given me over the years. I know a lot of the folks on this list are older than me, I started my research when I was 36 in 2000, I am now 42. I work full time and I have an 11 year old son, so I am limited in the amount of time I can devote to genealogical research. But this list has been the jewel of unlocking much valuable family information. I didn't even know the Family History Libraries existed until Colleen told me six years ago. I also want to make it clear that I have never, nor will I ever, try to claim any blood lineage to my adoptive family. I can join DAR and the Confederate Daughters if I want on my daddy's side of the family, where there is no adoption. But I am not a joiner, so I really don't care. It is the family history I am interested in, and I feel like it is my right to know about the history of my adoptive family. They chose my mother and her sisters and made them part of their family, and I know my grandmother would want my mother to know anything she wanted about Hyams family. She died when my mother was 15, so there was no opportunity to ask her directly about her family history. Certainly not by me. I also know that because New Orleans has been heavily Catholic, there are many of us who have adoptees in our family. My mom and her sisters were adopted in the 1930s and 1940s. The attitude of society back then was much different than it is now, or I hoped it would be. I have always tried to respect the attitude of my mother and her sisters. They feel like they know who their real parents are, and that it would be disrespectful to their adoptive parents to search for their birth families. Even though both my grandparents are deceased. I am caught between a rock and a hard place with them. I love my mother and my aunts dearly, and I know some of the cruelty they had to endure when others found out they were adopted. They were shamed for not being blood family, by outsiders, but also from some family as well. This is a big sore spot for them. They feel like they are the children of their adopted parents and to hell with what anyone else says or thinks. My mom feels like if I search for her biological family, that I am siding with the folks who ridiculed her and her sisters as children and adolescents. My mother is 64 and her biological mother has probably been dead for years. Since mother was adopted in Jan of 1944, I am suspecting her daddy was a soldier who had to go to war. If he was old enough to serve in 44, he is surely dead by now. I have my mom's adoption papers, and the court supposedly sealed the records. Her birth mother's name was Peggy Brannon, and when I went to Ireland in 2000, I found that the name originated in County Fermaugh in Ireland. That is the extent of what I know. I may search later, but only with my mother's consent, she gave me permission to look up the name while I was there. I stared this discussion because I know there are many New Orleans families who have adoptees in their family, much more so than other American cities, because of the Catholic population. I wanted to know how you all felt about this because I know that you all are incredibly decent people and I value your opinion. This has been a very upsetting situation for me, and the kind words offered by list members is truly appreciated. Allison Eleuterius Bartsch