[sparklemama77]

I am helping my grandmother Marian (Carlson) Schmeeckle 08-02-26, search for her son. She gave him up for adoption in the fall of 1945 or 1946. She named him Steven Ray. She thinks the home was on Josephine St, maybe a Florence Crittenton Home. Her health is failing, so we are hopeful for a find. We would like to find you too, any information would be great. Please reply!!!!Christal

[carolyn schuler]

Originally Posted by sparklemama77

I am helping my grandmother Marian (Carlson) Schmeeckle 08-02-26, search for her son. She gave him up for adoption in the fall of 1945 or 1946. She named him Steven Ray. She thinks the home was on Josephine St, maybe a Florence Crittenton Home. Her health is failing, so we are hopeful for a find. We would like to find you too, any information would be great. Please reply!!!!Christal

I can't help you with your search for her son, but I was born in Denver in 1944 and later adopted. I had the CCIS do a search for me about 12 years ago. The intermediary did find my birthfather but not my birthmother. However, she told me some mysterious stuff: that I had been born in a "home" in Denver rather than a hospital. Does your mother remember much about the FC home; I am under the assumption based on what I have been told that the place burned down.

[sparklemama77]

Thank you for responding to my post. We haven't got any closer to finding him. What is CCIS? Is it very expensive? From what info I have received yes FCH did burn down. She won't talk alot about it. We just found out about it ourselves a few years ago. It was a family secret. One of her sisters took her up there and brought her home, but we didn't know about the baby until after she had passed away. So our only source if info was gone.Thanks Again...Christal

[carolyn schuler]

you are very welcome. Yes, in our mothers' days, having a baby out of wedlock was very, very BAD. For your info, CCIS stands for Colorado Confidential Intermediary Services. My story about it goes like this: in 1991 I had already tried to get info about my birthparents but all doors seemed closed. Sometime then a group of lobbyists finally convinced the CO legislature to create a legal, honorable way for adoptees to search for their parents and vice versa. It also can be a search begun by a sibling like you are. I contacted CCIS, got on its wait list, and early in 1992 was contacted by my own intermediary who was licensed by that organization to conduct a search on my behalf. The aspect I like most about the way CCIS works is that the assigned searcher gives the first right to make contact to the parent or to whomever you are seeking. If that person says OK, then you are given the info so you can contact the person directly. If the person says NO, then you are not given the info. I found this to be much more moral than just showing up on someone's doorstep and saying, "Hi, I'm your daughter."

Under the direction of my CCIS searcher, I had to request some sort of permission from a judge in the county where I was adopted too. The search is not free; you have to reimburse the searcher for expenses such as phone calls, copies, etc., but it was worth it for me because I found my birthfather as well as a half sister and a ton of other relatives. It was a good experience, but for some, it isn't, you know.

To find out more about CCIS, just do a search for its full name and its website should show up for you. Good luck; I hope you find your brother. I never got anywhere as far as finding my birthmother, so about after a year and a half, I closed the search. What is depressing about doing that, according to what my searcher told me, is once you close your search, you can never reopen it. However, the searcher will have access to the original birth certificate info and perhaps other key documents that will lead him or her to finding your brother.

[Janet Heath]

The website for CCIS is

www.cocis.org


There are also a couple of online support groups:

ColoradoAdopteesSearch@yahoogroups.com

COregistry@yahogroups.com



Janet