It is that time of year again, when Randy Seaver has us write to Genea-Santa for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun.
Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision. Here's your chance to sit on Genea-Santa's lap (virtually) and tell him your Christmas genealogy-oriented wish list:
1. Write your 2023 Genea-Santa letter. Have you been a good genealogy girl or boy? What genealogy-oriented items are on your Christmas wish list? They could be family history items, technology items, or things that you want to pursue in your ancestral quest.
2. Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook Status post. Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.
I was looking through my old Genea-Santa posts and noticed that I haven't written a letter since 2019! I've been a pretty good genealogy girl: still doing lots of volunteer work, doing as much research as I can, sharing information with family members.
That said, my request list again is very, very short, because it's the most important thing I'm researching, but it has changed a little.
I'm still trying to find out what happened to the son my Aunt Dottie gave up for adoption in 1945, shortly after his birth on September 23. She gave him the name Raymond Lawrence Sellers. I don't know what name he was given after adoption.
I have done everything I know to do:
* Dottie's DNA is on Family Tree DNA, MyHeritage, and GEDMatch. I couldn't get her on Ancestry or 23andMe because those are spit tests, and Dottie couldn't manufacture enough for the tests.
* Raymond's siblings are represented on Ancestry and 23andMe.
* I did what I could with state research, but Raymond was born and adopted in New Jersey, which sealed adoption records from 1941 on. I tried searching through birth indices, but they did not point me anywhere helpful.
* Dottie registered with New Jersey as being willing to accept contact if Raymond chose to look for her.
The difference this year is that Dottie passed away in 2021. I don't know what would happen if Raymond did try to contact her through the New Jersey state office at this point. I need to find out if an alternate contact person (such as my cousin, who is Dottie's daughter and Raymond's sister) can be named or if the parent is the only person the state will accept (and I'm pretty sure that's what they do, because they're just not a friendly state to work with). Raymond's siblings would very much like to find him and connect with him, especially now that Dottie is gone.
That really leaves only the DNA databases as a way to find Raymond. But if he died young or if he and any children he might have had have never tested, we won't be able to find him.
I keep hoping. C'mon, Genea-Santa.
I do hope someday you get your wish.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lisa.
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