Dear Friends,

I too want to tell you, don't give up on searching for orphan information. My breakthrough happened just last year.

When I started my genealogy back in the 70's, I found out that my grandfather had been adopted and his name changed. My aunt provided me with a copy of his birth certificate, which showed he was born Robert Steinmeyer in 1886 in Chicago. It shows his birth parents names and says that he was their third child. She told me that he had been adopted by a Dr. Anna Bailey, also from the Chicago area, and she changed his name to Benjamin Franklin Bailey upon adoption. She didn't have any other information to offer me regarding his adoption.

Over the years, I have tried now and then to find more information but had little success. This past year I decided to try again to get his adoption information from the Clerk of Courts in Chicago, and finally succeeded. I sent three letters to that office last year, several months apart (including an SASE), but never heard a "yea" or "nay" from them.

Several months after sending the third letter, I received in the mail a letter from a judge, informing me that generally they do not release adoption information without a "hearing" to show cause. He went on further to say that in my case they had decided to release the information since all "parties" to the adoption were long since deceased. All I needed to do was send a copy of my grandfather's death certificate and $7. I of course sent that in right away, along with a copy of his birth certificate just for good measure.

Approximately six weeks went by before I received the information, but I do have it. What I learned was that he was adopted in 1893 at almost 7 years of age, that his parents were divorced, that his birth mother would have "visitation" privileges, and that Dr. Anna was the only person that signed the papers - her husband had not, which makes me think he might have been deceased by then. (I'm still working on that.)

What I didn't learn is what happened to his father and two older siblings. Had the older ones died, or gone with their father or other possible family members, or had they been farmed out to others to work? So, the hunt goes on, but at least my persistence finally paid off and I learned a little more about my grandfather.

My advice to others is again, don't give up. If actually going to the "source" is not an option for you, keep writing those letters. Hopefully, you too will have a success story.

Carol Holmbeck
[email protected]