My mother’s secret

My mother was adopted by her stepfather in June 1945 after her 18^th birthday.  My mother was born in 1927 and her mother and stepfather were married in 1929. However, I was always told they were married in 1926.

According to a report dated 24 May 1945, my mother only knew of the adoption two or three days beforehand. I wonder what kind of emotions that my mother went through. She never mentioned that she knew about the adoption, but she hinted around it once to me.

When I was younger, she had mentioned that she had to appear before a judge to get a new birth certificate created. She stated that her birth certificate was destroyed in a fire. But now reading this report that I sent for, I realized she knew the whole time.  I wonder why she never told me this fact. I never met her father, he died many years before I was ever born and thus it would not really affect me.  It might have saved me many years of researching her “maiden” name, only to find out they are not blood related to me, they are legally related and that still means something.

The paperwork does not release the name of her father. However the following clues are found, he was 20 years old when my mother was born. He worked for a Lumber Company but doesn’t state the company name, but it also states that my mother’s grandfather worked for the Paine Lumber Company and the blank by her father’s employer matches the length for her grandfather’s employer. Perhaps this is how her parent’s met.

It also states that her mother lost all touch with him many years ago and once heard that he had married but she can’t be certain. She doesn’t know where he lives or if he is even still alive. But she never heard of his death either. He appeared normal mentally and seemed to be in good health. She does not know how far he went in school but he did not appear to be very well educated. He paid $250 for lying-in expenses (whatever that means) at the birth of my mother. He was Roman Catholic of Polish descent. He never wanted my mother at all and refused to have anything whatsoever to do with her. His parents also rejected the child.

I wonder how accurate the Polish descent is, since later it states that her mother’s father was of English descent when in fact he was of German descent.

I told my aunt, her only surviving sister (the youngest in the family). She stated that she knew this years before after her mother died, her other sister found my mother’s original birth certificate.  The question is where did this birth certificate disappear to? My aunt who has macular degeneration, stated she has many boxes of paperwork of her mother’s that was given to her by her sister, who was living with my grandmother at the time of her death. I told my aunt that I will be back next summer to organize her boxes. Her only two children are adopted and neither wants all this paperwork.  I pray that nothing happens to my aunt and I will be able to go through the boxes. She had some paperwork sorted, but not my mother’s birth certificate.

Naturalization Research

Monday, I went to Winnebago County, Wisconsin in search of my great-great-grandfather’s naturalization paperwork. To say the least, I was very disappointed. First of all, the courts don’t have anything; it was the University System that had the paperwork.

I drove to Oshkosh, found the Polk Library and then had to find a parking spot. The parking lot stated that you needed a parking permit. I walked the ½ block to the library; ask the person at the information desk, where I would get a parking permit. I was told it was the next street over. I was given a map, drove to where the visitor parking was and found that it was totally dug up and under construction. There was no parking in the street and thus I gave up and drove back to the library. I found 2 hour parking on the street and took it. I walked the ½ block back to the library, informed the person at the information desk that the parking lot is under construction and said that I just parked in the street because I didn’t think it would take more than 2 hours to find the paperwork.

I walked the three flights up the stairs, (boy am I out of shape). The research area was just off the stairs and I stumbled in, out of breath and signed in and filled out a form that I was there. I told the gal behind the counter what I was looking for and she directed me to the computers. She told me that they have a free lookup online, but I could not find it when I looked online earlier. I did a name search, found four hits and wrote them down.

These hits took me to the microfilm drawers and I was reminded how to use the microfilm reader (it has been a while), pulled my first hit which was just another index. I am not sure what the index was telling me. I looked up the next hit and found declaration for a man named William Gadow who arrived May of 1872, is 55 years of age as of 1900, which makes his date of birth about 1845. I printed out the find since I was told printing was free. YEAH! The next hit showed me another declaration for a Wm Gadow who was born in Germany on or about the year 1844, and that he emigrated to the US in 1873 and was dated 1886.

The fourth hit was for a declaration in Winnebago County and I was unable to find it on the microfilm roll.

The second hit is the one that closes matches my ancestor, since I have based on his death certificate that he was born, Aug 1844. But to be honest, how can I tell which one is my relative? The birth years are only one year apart and the arrival years too are only one year apart. Both forms where signed and their signatures are very different and unique. Therefore, I might need to find something with my ancestor’s signature on for me to determine which one is mine.

Therefore, it is important not to overlook paperwork that has your ancestor’s signature. It might be a letter or postcard he wrote to a love one or friend. How about a bill of lading for something he bought. I will have to look through my files, when I get back home and see if either one looks familiar.

The declaration I that have for William Gadow who arrived May of 1872 has two witnesses signatures and the names seem to be associated with another William Gadow  ( I have done brief research on another William Gadow) who lived in another part of Dodge County, Wisconsin where my Wilhelm/William Gadow lived; another reason to think that the second declaration may be for my person.

I was hoping there would be more information on my ancestor that I would have found in this paperwork. Such as his spouse’s name, or perhaps any children he may have had, since they all would have been given citizenship at the same time (automatically), since this was the practice during this time period. Perhaps there was more paperwork, but those files were nowhere to be found.