Leigh, Great to hear from you!
These are my thoughts about your case and questions you could pursue:
1. 1526 E Wayne Street is not far from the downtown area where all the
Ft. Wayne action is centered. My grandfather lived on E Wayne
1961-1966.
2. Until you were adopted, someone or some account received funds for
your care from the state or county. This does not been Lydia Shapiro was
in the baby business exactly. How did she get in the middle- was she a
social service worker?
Dr. Lydia Shapiro was the doctor that delivered me. My birth mothers
address at the time of my birth was Dr Lydia Shapiro's at 1526 E. Wayne St.
From the letters that I have that the Dr. wrote to my adoptive parents, Dr
Shapiro had guardianship of me until I was adopted. My birth mother
supposedly gave the doctor this power over me. I was born in her clinic,
so there are no hospital records.
3. Did your parents make a payment to Lydia Shapiro for services- in
what
form?
No all payments were made directly to the lawyer who was in Huntington,
Indiana in Huntington County. I have the receipts and one states that so
much was for lawyer and the other receipt states for medical reimbursement
to Dr Shapiro.
Who recommended her to them?
Another family in Huntington had adopted a set of twins from this doctor.
Also my god-parents claim that they were going to adopt me at first and
then her husband, which happened to be a lawyer, said that he wanted
nothing to do with this Doctor or any of her babies. So my parents got me.
It doesn't seem likely that a name like Agnes Jeffers is made up,
though
Smith is >a little generic. It would take a lot of imagination to
constantly think up new and >unique names like Agnes Jeffers for Birth
Certificates.
I tend to agree with you on this, but you never know. Especially in these
situations.
Have you explored Missouri genealogy for Agnes Jeffers as you can zero
in
on >her date of birth by knowing her age in 1953?
I have been trying, I used a few data bases that I found on line but did
not really turn up anything. I did not find any Agnes Jeffers born in
Missouri in this time period. Which leads me to believe that this may have
been a married name. So now I am searching for any marriage records that I
can find with her last name of Jeffers. But I don't even know if she
married in Missouri or where ever.
If Lydia was falsifying Certificates she had to repeatedly get it past
someone in >the Clerk of the Court's office. Do you have any names of judges
?
Yes, sure do, the judge that granted the adoption was from the Huntington
Juvenile Court, Glenn Burr. Any suggestions what to do with this information?
4. Where in California did Dr. Lydia die? (coincidentally, some of my
story ends >up in California too)
She died in Hollywood California. I obtained her obituary from the Los
Angeles Times Newspaper. Which listed a husband, Constantine and five
sons, Michael, Jacob, Joseph, Ariel, and Isaac. Also she had 9
grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
Have you pulled a copy of the Estate of Lydia Shapiro?
No, how do I go about doing this?
Who was her estate attorney, where did she own property?
I have no idea who the attorney would have been. Besides owning the
property in Fort Wayne, I am only assuming that she owned property in
California also.
5. Did your a-parents have an attorney for the adoption proceedings?
Who? Who was the judge in the adoption case?
Yes, their attorney was C.W.H. Bangs from Huntington, he is deceased now,
but his son-in-law took over his practice. I have written to him and he
states that he located my adoption file and the only thing that is in it
besides the adoption was the paper that my birth parents signed to
relinquish their parental rights to me.
I will comb through my files now with an eye out. Do you have any
other
info like hospital, any other names or places.
I know that the Huntington County Welfare Dept. did the home study for the
adoption. My adoptive mom said this and said that they only came back one
more time months later to check up on me and that was the last she heard
from them. Just seems funny that nothing else is ever mentioned about Fort
Wayne and Allen County except for my birth and the doctor. Everything else
was handled in Huntington County as that was the residence of my adoptive
parents.
Great to hear from you. Let me know if you or anyone else on this list has
any ideas or suggestions. I am open to any and all.
I swear genealogy would be alot easier if I knew where to really start!
Female Adoptee
DOB: 01/16/53
Place of Birth: Fort Wayne, Indiana
Delivering Doctor: Dr Lydia Shapiro, 1526 E. Wayne St., Fort Wayne, In.
Date of Adoption: 06/54 in Huntington County
Cause #486 in Huntington Juvenile Court
Birth Mother: Agnes Jeffers born in Missouri, was 28 years old at the time
of my birth
Birth Father: Stanley Smith, USA, was 36 years old at the time of my birth
This is about all that I have, sure wish it sounded familiar to someone,
somewhere........
Cris