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My Journey: |
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May 2007 Ok... so I know that I am really late, but was waiting for this story to play out a little bit more. It is unbelievable. I don't know how much detail I can go into here, or for that matter if the story will be that easy to follow. But it is remarkable, and true. About 25 years ago, my mother found out she had twin sisters. It seems that the younger children of my grandmother's family did not know the story of what had happened to her when she first arrived in America from England as a young girl. Then one of her older sisters mentioned wondering about the twins. That was the first that my mom even know they existed. Aunt Carol had taken a serious interest in finding out the story, but she passed away in 1987. About five years ago, with my interest in genealogy, decided to try and see if I could find out the answer to this, and also find out the ship that she came on and when it was for sure (we knew it was about 1912 or 1914 at that time). Well.. let's see. What I had eventually found out by last year, through research online, at the Library of Michigan in Lansing, and also through another relative on my mom's side, Bob, who still lives in the Muskegon area, we had pieced together the story last year and knew everything up to what happened after the girls were born. My grandmother came to America in September of 1912 to live with her aunt & uncle. She was only sixteen, and sailed alone from Liverpool to Quebec, where it appears that her uncle met her and accompanied her to Muskegon, Michigan. This would have been only about five months after the Titanic disaster. Shortly after her arrival, however, her uncle began taking advantage of her, which by January, 1913 left her pregnant, and him in prison. When she gave birth to twins in July 1913, her being so young and poor, the girls were adopted out the following day. Their birth record lists there names as Winifred and Beatrice Hinks. Later my grandparents named two of their daughters Winifred and Beatrice Chaffee. Well, in May this year I was contacted by someone who is related to one of the women who adopted one of the girls (presumably Beatrice, as the court records have an adoption record for her). Kathy had just come across an article about the girls from 1925, before she saw one of my postings looking for information on the girls. The articles all show that by 1921 the family that got the other twin found out about the adoption in 1913. The woman who got the other twin had presented the girl to her husband and everyone else that it was her child. This led her husband to believe that the other girl had been stolen in 1913, and was indeed their child. The doctor, seemingly to reduce the amount of trouble he was likely in, continued to go along with the deception. This family then ended up with both of the girls. By knowing their names with their new families, we were able to quickly locate them on the census in 1920 and 1930, and eventually their married names, and finally, their current location. One of the girls will be 94 next month, and still lives in Muskegon (just a couple of hours from here). My mom and two remaining aunts have just found out what happened to their other two sisters that they hadn't known about, and also that they have two nephews & a niece that they have never known of. While the two girls did know about being separated at birth, the full story is just now coming out. The more we look into the story, the more amazing it is. And for me personally, it is an odd finish, as it was so unpredicted - it just happened. I can only imagine how my mom and two aunts feel. |
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last modified June 11, 2007 |
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