Forget Me Not Family Society ~ Adoption Circles ~

The emotions that are described are those that have been felt one time or another by all of us searching adoptees, who are honest with ourselves. The need to know who our mother is, the need to know the true story of what happened, and that fear of what we may find. Without being 'preachy', the reader also learns the need for support and preparation for those of us embarking on this journey.

The reader will learn how a Black Market baby selling ring works, the money involved is staggering, and the lengths those criminal minds will go to disturbing.

Adoption had never been popular, and certainly didn't exist as we now know it. Americans were afraid to adopt, thinking orphaned children were flawed or damaged. If children were adopted, quite often they were used as hired help. Unwed mothers often kept their babies, and would bring them up in the family. Mother's in homes would be encouraged to stay with their babies for longer periods, in hope that they would bond with their child and therefore want to keep it. What Georgia Tann discovered was that if she could 'market' these babies and children favorably, there was money to be made. Georgia was able to secure the help of a judge in the corrupt state of Tennessee, who would falsify birth certificates and whatever other documentation that was necessary in order for Georgia to obtain the babies and children she needed to supply her growing list of wealthy adoptive parents nationwide.

Young unwed mothers, or mothers that were impoverished and had just given birth would awaken to find that their babies had died. Never knowing that their babies had been secretly whisked away and sold. Sometimes Georgia would steal children from their poor families to fill a specific order for a certain look, for example she may have an order for a 2 year old blond blue eyed girl. Many times children would be returned for not being what the adoptive families actually wanted. These children would languish in some of the many homes that Georgia ran. Often children were sold into abusive homes, where they would be physically, emotionally and sexually abused. Some newborn babies that were stolen would die from dehydration, and buried in unmarked graves before having a chance to be adopted. Georgia's greed and need for power knew no boundaries.

Georgia Tann had many celebrity clients, Joan Crawford being one of them. The babies and children that Georgia stole were sold all over the United States, and into Canada as well. Tennessee was run by a corrupt political network that allowed her to carry on for almost three decades untouched. When questions were raised either the law would be rewritten by Georgia's personal lawyer Abe Waldauer, or those questioning would be run out of the state by "Boss" Ed Crump's people.

This book is very disturbing in it's subject matter, and covers a very dark time for the state of Tennessee. Unfortunately it wasn't the only state that had black market baby sellers, and equally unfortunate is that this is a practice that still does exist today, with adoptions taking place in North America and Internationally. The woman who arranged for one of Angelina Jolie's adoptions, was American broker Lauryn Galindo, who between 1997 and 2001 arranged for adoptions of Cambodian children to Americans, making an estimated $8 million in the process. Eventually she would serve 18 months in prison for falsifying names, histories, passports and birth certificates for these children.

Barbara Raymond interviewed survivors of the horrors of what Georgia Tann did. In the end some were reunited with siblings, and sometimes parents. These damaged souls were able to find some happiness after so many years of pain. It wasn't until 1999, that the records were finally opened in Tennessee for all adopted people and birth parents in that state.