[Reg Niles]

Attention all adoptees who are adults and the victims of sealed records. Is the time right? Is the political climate in the U.S. right? Will powerful people, like Sen. Chuck Schumer in my state, support the adult adoptees?

Is the time right to request an apology from the federal government for what they did to you? I say "you" and not "us" because I am not an adoptee. In my opinion, a formal apology from a government body, such as the Senate, should come about four years before adoptees demand reparations for their suffering.

Of course, the sealed records laws have been enacted by individual states, but there was an interstate commerce of ideas. Social workers and opinion-makers crossed state lines to attend conferences and journals containing their ideas about secrecy were distributed via the U.S. Post Office.

I do not recall the involvement of the Children's Bureau in the effort to promote state legislation about amended birth certificates. I should reread that wonderful book by E. Wayne Carp, cited below.

An apology has been extracted from the Australian government, which has states that were involved in two bad things. The first involved the transmigration of children from England to Australia. Picture this: a girl is put on a boat at an English port with other children who are told they are going to a great school in Australia. After a long voyage, they are taken to an empty piece of land and are told that they are going to build the school from scratch. Years later, the girl reaches the age of majority and leaves the system of public care, thinking that she is an orphan. She is not told that her mother is alive in England! I have cited two articles--by Benn and by Buti--below, which will provide further detail.

The second bad thing done in Australia was the forced removal of aborigine youths from their families so that they could be educated and absorbed into mainstream society. They are now called "The Stolen Generation."

Here are citations of one book and two articles. I am Reg Niles, the founder of the Adoption Bibliography Center.

CARP, E. Wayne (1946- ). Family Matters: Secrecy and Disclosure in the History of Adoption. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1998. xii, 304 p. Paperback edition pub. 2000. Blurbs: "Cuts through the sealed records, changing policies, and conflicting agendas that have obscured the history of adoption in America . . ."--adv. "If one can overlook the author's lack of objectivity in his last three chapters, Family Matters is worth reading as an historical review of adoption records and practices in the United States."--Carol Baumann, Ph.D., LCSW. E. Wayne Carp was then an associate professor of history at Pacific Lutheran Univ. in Tacoma, WA and had access to the records of the Washington Children's Home Society. Contents: 1. The Rise of Adoption -- 2. The Origins of Adoption Records -- 3. When Adoption Was No Secret -- 4. The Ephemeral Age of Secrecy -- 5. The Emergence of the Adoption Rights Movement -- 6. The Adoption Records Wars -- 7. From Open Records to Open Adoption -- Epilogue: The Prospects for Adoption. (Adoptees--U.S.--Identification) (Adoption--Law and legislation) (Confidential communications--U.S.) (Open adoption--U.S.--History) (LC 97-40023). A review of this book, by Joseph M. Hawes, was pub. in> American Historical Review, vol. 104, no. 1 (Feb. 1999) p. 175-__. A review by Elaine Tyler May was pub. in> Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 30, no. 1 (Jun. 1999) p. 156-__. A review by Kenneth W. Watson was pub. in> Social Service Review, vol. 73, no. 3 (Sept. 1999) p. 435-__. A review by Judith S. Modell was pub. in> Journal of Social History, vol. 33, no. 2 (Winter 1999) p. 505-__. A review by Carol Baumann was pub. in> Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, vol. 64, no. 3 (Summer 2000) p. 430-__. A review by Sonya Michel was pub. in> Journal of American History, vol. 87, no. 2 (Sept. 2000) p. 739-__. Cf. HERMAN, Ellen, In and Out of the Adoption Closet. Cf. SAMUELS, Elizabeth J., How Adoption in America Grew Secret.

BENN, Melissa. Return to Owner. in> Community Care, no. 1423 (May 23, 2002) p. 22. Copyright by Reed Business Information Ltd. Blurb: "The Australian government has recently issued a statement of public regret about the treatment of child migrants shipped from Britain after the Second World War . . . some [were] told they were orphans while their parents were told they were adopted, many of them sexually and emotionally abused." The author is a journalist and novelist. (Adoption--Government policy) (Australia). Cf. HUMPHREYS, Margaret, Empty Cradles.

BUTI, Antonio. Bridge Over Troubled Australian Waters: Reparations for Aboriginal Child Removals and British Child Migrants. in> E Law, vol. 10, no. 4 (Dec. 2003) p. __. Perth, W.A.: Murdoch Univ. School of Law. The periodical is an online journal, but some articles are available in print form. Blurb: "This article commences with a brief overview of the history of the Aboriginal child removals or separations and British child migrants in Australia. It then goes onto [sic] examine the demands made for reparations from these two historical events and the responses to these demands. Next the issue of the legal and moral basis of reparations is examined."--Pubr. The title of this article is taken from "Bridge over Troubled Water"--a 1969 song by Paul Simon. Antonio Buti is or was a Senior Lecturer at Murdoch University School of Law. (Aborigines--The Stolen Generation) (Children--Institutional care--Australia) (Reparations)