[markow]

About a year ago I wrote to Barbara Laur, the director of the Florence Crittenton Services of Greater Washington to see if I could get my birth records (my bmother stayed at the Florence Crittenton Maternity home in D.C.). Mrs. Laur wrote back telling me that the building where all the birth records were stored burned in November 1993, destroying the birth records.

I'm writing to, 1) verify if this is true. Does anyone have any information to corroborate that this is true? and, 2) is there anywhere else I can go to get information from Florence Crittenton about births in D.C. in 1955?

Thank you,

Ted

[Judi]

If you would like to email me privately, I will be happy to share with you what I know.
DC bmom - reunited
judib4@earthlink.net

[markow]

Strangely, I searched the Washington Posts archives for 1993 (when the fire supposedly happened) and 1994 and couldn't find a mention of this "fire." I would have thought that an event like that would have warranted some amount of press coverage. The Florence Crittenton web site (http://www.fcs-dc.org/html/aboutus/history.html) mentions the fire, but no press coverage. Hmm.....

I'm going to have to get to the bottom of this.

Ted

PS. If anyone has any suggestions or info, please e-mail me. tbag.markowATverizon.net

[KVakinov]

Even if it is true they are not the only place that would hold birth records.

[markow]

Karen,

That's true, but I'm not sure where else to look. I'm not even sure if I was born at the maternity home or at a local hospital. I heard that G.W. Hospital delivered babies for Crittenton back then, but when I worte to GW, they weren't able to supply any info.

Do you have any ideas of where else I can look?

Best,

Ted

[KVakinov]

The home has birth records, the county, and the state for starters. I am going to tell you the law in Illinois many states were probably simular. I was born in 54 by law the home
or courts had to place adoption ads so and so petitioning to
adopt so and so. The beauty of those yrs. were they mentioned
at least one parent last name of the child, and the name of
the adoptive parents. In Illinois the law changed in 62.
Now in Illinois you can insist on the state not the county putting
the hospital on your certificate. Some states advertised in
regular newspapers some courts had there own papers all were public. Another loop hole in Illinois is marriage records are not public but the application to marriage is. What I am saying is know your laws. Also many advertising occured in the county
adoption was finalized in. I after looking for 25 yrs. hired a private investigator who found them in 2 months does all 50 states. One more thing if you were in a foster home you can
use the freedom of information act to obtain those records.

[Heckart]

I don't know if the washington fire is true but I was told the same thing when I tried to get records for the Sioux City, Iowa Florence Crit. Home. She told me they had a fire years ago at their location that burnt a number of records. I am wondering if this is what they tell people searching so they do not have to provide information.
Good Luck

[denise marie]

they tell everyone this....My husband was at the florence crittendon home in Missourri and he was told ther was a fire as well.It was all a hoax.They are shut down however we cannot seem to trace his records.He was also told the juvinile court caught on fire.We searched and that was true.Please dont accept that you have a right to those records.
Denise

[markow]

Hi all,

Thanks for the great responses about records destroyed by "fires" at Crittenton facilities.

I'm in the process of documenting all cases where people have been told by someone at a Florence Crittenton organization that birth records were destroyed by fire or any other cause. If you have been told this by someone at Crittenton, or know of womeone who has, I would greatly appreciate your contacting me at iammyself1955@yahoo.com.

Thank you.

Ted Markow

[Kerrylynn80]

Ted,
I was wondering if you have found any more information on the Florence Crittenton Maternity home in D.C. I am looking for my Grandmother that gave birth to my father in 1953. I too was told the records were burned.
Thank you.

[wherestawandawright]

im sorry but this is the same thing i was told years ago when i called for info on my sister-so i believe it to be true

[Caroline367]

I work for an adoption agency in DC. We placed many children whose mothers resided at FCH during the 1950-70s. The adoption agency has a record for all cases. To access these records, the adoptions branch of DC Family court has to be petitioned for the agency to break the seal on the adoption record.

[JustPeachy]

OK, I know this thread is quite old, but in reading it now, I'm wondering about my situation. I placed a child for adoption through a different agency (not Crittenden), and when I asked to access my file to get copies of some old paperwork that I did not have in my file at home, I was told there was a fire in the storage facility where they kept old records.

Now I'm beginning to wonder if there are things in these files the agencies don't want people to see. What is up with this?

[SEARCHINGSPIRIT]

I am really glad I stopped here....I was born in DC but have never been able to find that the hospital even existed. I contacted the atty that handled the adoption several years ago and he had retired but before he rudely hung up on me he stated that all the records concerning my birth had burned in a fire.....Lately I have started looking into maturnity homes of that time 1956. Something in my baby book led me to SC, why I do not know but contacted someoone that told me that I would never find records from Florence Crittenton home there b/c all records had burned in a fire.......I know believe after reading these posts that this is a well fabricated lie.....Not all FC homes could have had a fire! Now at least I have a starting point I just read an article called "Not By Choice" on google by Karen Wilsen Buterbaugh ( Try Google to read this) that explains what our birthmom's went through in the 1950's to Cover up what they had done.....it makes sense of your findings here and makes me think it's all lies.

[SEARCHINGSPIRIT]

Can anyone tell me if you were a birthmom at the FC home in DC in 1956 where you would have given birth ? what hospital was used in DC from this maternity home?