Hello, My husband was adopted as an infant and we adopted our two children (boy & girl) also as infants in 1964 and 1966. Each one of their situations are different. The kids never remember me sitting down and telling them because we always talked about it in story form. On my family website (tribalpages.com), I add the birthparents names. if I know them. For others, I just type "birth parents unknown". So far, no one seems offended. We have learned who my husband's birth mother was and have traced some of her ancestry. We found out about my daughter's birth parents and met the mother, maternal grandfather, and paternal grandparents. (Birth father died when my daughter was 2.) Unfortunately, we have never found out anything for my son, although I've posted queries. I have separate websites for my husband's and daughter's birth side. For my daughter, I wrote under her notes that we are her adoptive parents; also did this for my husband and wrote "birth father" unknown. This way, my precious little granddaughter (age 8) will have all her family's names. By the way, I wish some one would come up with a better name than "adopted". When my children were adopted their birth parents were called "biological parents". Birth parents sounds so nice, but "adoptive" doesn't sound good to me; after all you can adopt a pet. As for lineage societies... I belong to DAR (did it for the challenge) and if I didn't tell anybody, my daughter could join with the paperwork I have, but know it would be bogus. She is a descendant of early Californians and should be able to join "The Native Daughters of the Golden West", but can't prove it because her birth certificate shows us as her parents. The good thing is she's not a joiner, so it's OK with her. (Life does suck sometimes.) When I met my daughter's birth mother in 1990, we had a big family reunion. It was fun! I believe that it's not only about the genealogy, it's about family history. I do not like to call myself a genealogist, but rather the family historian. Good luck in searching! Bev in Calif. PA native ----- Original Message ----- From: "Allison Bartsch" <rb1000@hotmail.com> To: <laorlean@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 3:57 PM Subject: [LAORLEAN] adoption & genealogy > Hi Nova, > > I have a question to ask the list. I was lucky enough to have the > genealogy of my father's family done for me by an uncle years before I was > born. I had always been interested in family history because it was there > for me to know. My father's family had been on the Mississippi Coast > (Biloxi) since D'Iberville landed. > > Nobody had done research on my mother's family, which is from New Orleans. > My mother is adopted and there in comes the issue. My mother did not want > me to pursue her biological family. My grandmother adopted three little > girls, from the Protestant Home for Babies, in New Orleans. I even have > mother's adoption papers with her birth mother's name listed. But none of > the sisters have expressed any interest in their biological roots. > However, they were eager for me to do research on their adopted family. > Which I have done, with some measure of success. > > Apparently adoption is a volatile subject in genealogy. Recently, I have > had two "cousins" stop corresponding with me as soon as they found out my > mother was adopted. This has occurred within the last 6 months. > > I don't really know how to feel about this, it is quite upsetting. I > dared not tell my mother or her sisters, because I would never say or do > anything that would shame them about their adoption. > > Closer family members have done nothing but encourage me in my research. > But I have had the snub happen before when I first started doing research, > about six years ago. > > Can someone educate me about the prevailing attitude toward adoptees in > genealogy? Are these snubs common for adoptees? Am I wrong in thinking > that my mother's adopted family is just as legitimate as blood? I have > and would never claim any type of heritage for joining associations like > the DAR or their like. My grandmother was a great lady, and she chose my > mother and her sisters to be her family, I don't see why we can't be her > family too. > > Thank you for your consideration of this matter. > > Allison Eleuterius Bartsch > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Your message sounds joyous. MM in TN On Apr 4, 2008, at 9:50 PM, Beverty Morris wrote: > Hello, > > My husband was adopted as an infant and we adopted our two children > (boy & > girl) also as infants in 1964 and 1966. Each one of their > situations are > different. The kids never remember me sitting down and telling them > because > we always talked about it in story form. > > On my family website (tribalpages.com), I add the birthparents > names. if I > know them. For others, I just type "birth parents unknown". So far, > no one > seems offended. We have learned who my husband's birth mother was > and have > traced some of her ancestry. We found out about my daughter's birth > parents > and met the mother, maternal grandfather, and paternal > grandparents. (Birth > father died when my daughter was 2.) Unfortunately, we have never > found out > anything for my son, although I've posted queries. > > I have separate websites for my husband's and daughter's birth > side. For my > daughter, I wrote under her notes that we are her adoptive parents; > also did > this for my husband and wrote "birth father" unknown. This way, my > precious > little granddaughter (age 8) will have all her family's names. > > By the way, I wish some one would come up with a better name than > "adopted". > When my children were adopted their birth parents were called > "biological > parents". Birth parents sounds so nice, but "adoptive" doesn't > sound good to > me; after all you can adopt a pet. > > As for lineage societies... I belong to DAR (did it for the > challenge) and > if I didn't tell anybody, my daughter could join with the paperwork > I have, > but know it would be bogus. She is a descendant of early > Californians and > should be able to join "The Native Daughters of the Golden West", > but can't > prove it because her birth certificate shows us as her parents. The > good > thing is she's not a joiner, so it's OK with her. (Life does suck > sometimes.) > > When I met my daughter's birth mother in 1990, we had a big family > reunion. > It was fun! > > I believe that it's not only about the genealogy, it's about family > history. > I do not like to call myself a genealogist, but rather the family > historian. > > Good luck in searching! > > Bev in Calif. > PA native > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Allison Bartsch" <rb1000@hotmail.com> > To: <laorlean@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 3:57 PM > Subject: [LAORLEAN] adoption & genealogy > > >> Hi Nova, >> >> I have a question to ask the list. I was lucky enough to have the >> genealogy of my father's family done for me by an uncle years >> before I was >> born. I had always been interested in family history because it >> was there >> for me to know. My father's family had been on the Mississippi Coast >> (Biloxi) since D'Iberville landed. >> >> Nobody had done research on my mother's family, which is from New >> Orleans. >> My mother is adopted and there in comes the issue. My mother did >> not want >> me to pursue her biological family. My grandmother adopted three >> little >> girls, from the Protestant Home for Babies, in New Orleans. I >> even have >> mother's adoption papers with her birth mother's name listed. But >> none of >> the sisters have expressed any interest in their biological roots. >> However, they were eager for me to do research on their adopted >> family. >> Which I have done, with some measure of success. >> >> Apparently adoption is a volatile subject in genealogy. Recently, >> I have >> had two "cousins" stop corresponding with me as soon as they found >> out my >> mother was adopted. This has occurred within the last 6 months. >> >> I don't really know how to feel about this, it is quite upsetting. I >> dared not tell my mother or her sisters, because I would never say >> or do >> anything that would shame them about their adoption. >> >> Closer family members have done nothing but encourage me in my >> research. >> But I have had the snub happen before when I first started doing >> research, >> about six years ago. >> >> Can someone educate me about the prevailing attitude toward >> adoptees in >> genealogy? Are these snubs common for adoptees? Am I wrong in >> thinking >> that my mother's adopted family is just as legitimate as blood? I >> have >> and would never claim any type of heritage for joining >> associations like >> the DAR or their like. My grandmother was a great lady, and she >> chose my >> mother and her sisters to be her family, I don't see why we can't >> be her >> family too. >> >> Thank you for your consideration of this matter. >> >> Allison Eleuterius Bartsch >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> LAORLEAN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LAORLEAN- > request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message