Mary is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee born in 1965. She was not adopted until she was almost 8 months old, after being moved to a couple of foster homes. She was told she wasn’t “doing well” at the first, likely because they had too many children there. Raised in a small town by a conservative Catholic family with her brother—also adopted two years later—Mary and her brother always knew they were adopted.

She always felt a sense of disconnection—the “weird kid” who didn’t fit in—so searching was a natural byproduct of that. She began trying to find avenues to learn about her birth family as early as elementary school. She spent hours in libraries, scouring old newspapers and yearbooks. After trying every path she could over the years, thanks to DNA testing, social media, and stubbornness, she was finally able to find them and gain access to her original birth certificate and adoption papers in 2014, with mixed results. She began to realize how ingrained the sense of secrecy and shame still is 50 years later.

Understanding the trauma of adoption and inspired by Ann Fessler’s The Girls Who Went Away, Mary went on to make the Baby Scoop Era the topic of her doctoral dissertation, digging through archives and interviewing birth mothers, case workers, and others who had been involved in the process at the time. She has also been involved in drafting a bill and testifying in front of her state legislature, advocating for access of adult adoptees to their original birth certificates. Mary remains committed to advocating for adoptees and birth parents through research, education, and reform.

Practically Still a Virgin by Monica Hall

You Can't Get Rid of Me by Jesse Scott and Keri Ault

Unspoken by Liz Harvie

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RESOURCES for Adoptees:

Adoptees Connect

Adoptee Mentoring Society

Gregory Luce and Adoptee Rights Law

Kristal Parke Because She Is Adopted

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