by Kathleen Anderson
Pugnutty@aol.com
A dear friend in her mid-80s told me, while I was sharing the trials of my genealogy research, that she was adopted and had promised her mother she would not search for her birth mother as long as her mother lived. Her mother lived to age 95, so my friend Helen thought it was much too late to find anything at that time. I asked her if she would like to know something now, and she said yes.
I was given a few papers with the birth mother's name and where Helen was born. I began searching and over a year and a half gathered information about everyone I could find in the late 1800s to the present time with her birth mother's surname in South and North Dakota, putting everything in a binder, not knowing who was connected.
I found a willing person involved with a historical society and must have piqued her appetite for mystery solving as she began to hunt along with me. We filed for the court to unseal Helen's adoption records and we waited many months for a result. Six weeks ago the records were unsealed and we found the birth place of Helen's mother. With that it confirmed who her mother was--the only person with that name in the small North Dakota town and exactly the perfect age. I found a distant relative of the birth mom who referred me to an aunt who had lost contact with this branch of the family, and who gave me the married name, death date, and place last lived for Helen's birth mom. I called the office of vital statistics in that state and had a death certificate sent overnight. On the death certificate was the the name of a daughter with an address. Although 20 years had passed, the address was good. I found the phone number and nervously explained my reason for calling.
From that contact my friend Helen, who was raised by a loving pastor and his wife, but as an only child, now has met a wonderful brother, Earl, living two hours from her. She has two other brothers and a sister, 15 nephews and five nieces, one of whom is a U.S. senator. Through a great-grandmother, Helen is also a descendant of William PENN. My friend just celebrated her 85th birthday two days ago and received a large bouquet of flowers from her brother Earl and his wife and lots of beautiful birthday cards from all over the United States from new-found family who are welcoming her. This Saturday [11 March 2000], Helen and her two grown children along with my husband and I will be going to Earl's for lunch and a surprise party for Helen. As many family members as possible will be there to meet my friend.
I write this to encourage others. Who would have guessed that such a wonderful outcome was possible? And Helen thought it was too late.