CA CA - Newark "Mowry Ave Jane Doe" WhtFem UP53306 <40, Oct 85

[djanga]

I have asked the DDP about the development of this case, here is their answer:

“This one is also tricky. In the database, it's listed as "At IGG Endpoint" because we've identified her birth family, but the brick wall of adoption has stalled research. We are keeping it open in case the LEO wants us to conduct any confirmatory research down the line.

-DNA Doe Project Media Department”

 

[AggieLou]

So with the timeline and other information in the Golden City Herald, what do you think about narrowing
down possible birth dates.
Marie had run away 4 times in 1947, in March, April, May, and July 12. She was picked up by sheriff July 16,. She admitted first that she had sex with 3 different boys but later said only one.
Then complained of appendicitis, examined by doctor who said she was healthy. Would a pregnancy have been noticed if she conceived on the first runaway, or even before that? I'm wondering because 2 weeks later she was before the judge and sentenced to a year in Chillicothe. Did she actually serve that entire year? Or if pregnant what would have happened. If she served a year and was not pregnant then it would have been at least July or August of 1948 before she got out. Her half sister was born in 1949, not sure of month. But not much, if any, time for a full term pregnancy after Chillicothe if Marie was actually there a full year.
So I was looking mainly in 1947 Ancestry birth records but that doesn't seem likely either. Could she have had a child at only 14, before any of these events occurred?
I'm not sure where to go with this now or even if anything about this Jane Doe's birth is on Ancestry.

 

[AggieLou]

This attachment is a file from a PBS documentary on the problems adoptees that were adopted out of Missouri were encountering trying to find their birth family. From the end of WWII into the 1960s there were no set regulations or records required. Kansas City according to this was well known for just showing up to different "agencies" to "adopt" a baby and leaving with one. Records were often "fudged" as well. I hope Jane Doe was not adopted through places like this. Scary thought that they not be able to identify her.

 

[SunflowerKate]

So with the timeline and other information in the Golden City Herald, what do you think about narrowing
down possible birth dates.
Marie had run away 4 times in 1947, in March, April, May, and July 12. She was picked up by sheriff July 16,. She admitted first that she had sex with 3 different boys but later said only one.
Then complained of appendicitis, examined by doctor who said she was healthy. Would a pregnancy have been noticed if she conceived on the first runaway, or even before that? I'm wondering because 2 weeks later she was before the judge and sentenced to a year in Chillicothe. Did she actually serve that entire year? Or if pregnant what would have happened. If she served a year and was not pregnant then it would have been at least July or August of 1948 before she got out. Her half sister was born in 1949, not sure of month. But not much, if any, time for a full term pregnancy after Chillicothe if Marie was actually there a full year.
So I was looking mainly in 1947 Ancestry birth records but that doesn't seem likely either. Could she have had a child at only 14, before any of these events occurred?
I'm not sure where to go with this now or even if anything about this Jane Doe's birth is on Ancestry.

So many unknowns. JD's half sister, (my mother) was born June 5,1949 in Pilot Point, TX. She was 7lb 19.5in which sounds like full term, which means Marie became pregnant in Sept/Oct 1948 with my mom. If Marie was sent to the Chillicothe School in August 1947 for the "year sentence" as the article states, then perhaps she was either
a.) pregnant when she went there & gave birth there (or wherever they sent her to have the baby), or
b). got pregnant shortly after arrival (scary thought) and gave birth while still there. Of course, that is IF she stayed at the school for a full year, and if so, she got pregnant again right after her release in 1948, since my mom was born in June 1949.

My suspicion was that she was already pregnant when she got there because the article states she had been sexually active AND in reading the documentation that my mom's adoptive parents were given about her birth mother it states, "Her parents feared trouble and it seems that confinement in the Training School for a period of time was the result". Back then girls who got pregnant out of wedlock were girls who "got in trouble". Thoughts?

 

[AggieLou]

So many unknowns. JD's half sister, (my mother) was born June 5,1949 in Pilot Point, TX. She was 7lb 19.5in which sounds like full term, which means Marie became pregnant in Sept/Oct 1948 with my mom. If Marie was sent to the Chillicothe School in August 1947 for the "year sentence" as the article states, then perhaps she was either
a.) pregnant when she went there & gave birth there (or wherever they sent her to have the baby), or
b). got pregnant shortly after arrival (scary thought) and gave birth while still there. Of course, that is IF she stayed at the school for a full year, and if so, she got pregnant again right after her release in 1948, since my mom was born in June 1949.

My suspicion was that she was already pregnant when she got there because the article states she had been sexually active AND in reading the documentation that my mom's adoptive parents were given about her birth mother it states, "Her parents feared trouble and it seems that confinement in the Training School for a period of time was the result". Back then girls who got pregnant out of wedlock were girls who "got in trouble". Thoughts?

Thank you for this information. I did some research on Chilicothe trying to find out if they did have pregnant girls there and subsequently babies born there but could not find anything specific on that. I saw in a couple places where they did specifically take in sexually active girls in an effort to turn their life in the direction of homemaking, family values, "wifely" things. I don't think she could have become pregnant there as it was all girls. Unless maybe there were male staff or trades people that were there at times for repairs, remodeling etc. I'm leaning toward her already being pregnant when sentenced to Chillicothe. Or the possiblity she had a child at 14 or younger and this was a reason to try sending her to Chillicothe in trying to redirect the path she was currently choosing.