Elwood to honor victims of Tennessee Children’s Home Society

[StevieM]

3. Excellent post. A monument to honor Georgia Tann's victims is long overdue.

I hate that our adoption laws were largely written by this horrible woman. And I hate that she died before being brought to justice for her crimes.

Do you know Joe Soll? Joe was a black market baby. He is very prominent in the adoption reform community. He didn't find his natural family until recently, when he was in his early 70s, and his natural mother had already died. But for years they were looking for each other, while being stymied by state laws.

In Joe's case his original birth certificate was a fraud. Bessie Bernard, the woman who sold him, made sure he was untraceable. He was able to get his OBC by suing New York, on the basis of having been sold. The courts (on appeal) ruled in his favor. Eventually, he was able to find his half-brother and cousins by using a DNA data base.