Marilee Wein

Double Genealogy: The ADOPTION WITNESS Marilee Wein

Surprise adoptee, Grandfather was a coal picker in Scotland, at 29, and Chief Inspector of Mines for British Columbia, at 43. He had shared his date and place of birth, or so, it seemed. This genealogy embraces late 18th to early 20th Century, Scotland, with US implications.

His family is lovingly presented in "who done it", under evaluation, as his potential birth parents. His dearly departed are drawn to present, fulfilling adoptee yearn for natal truth. They join "missing person" searches, through crumbs laid long ago, in their records of life. Their whispered lifelines include a wrench; a same aged, unrelated, adopted cousin, awaiting discovery.

Old fashioned story weaving substitutes for DNA certainty, as eliminations ensue. The road to data discovery and conclusion is superimposed upon the narrative. Accuracy of selection is left to reader speculation, while threat of an undisclosed record of rebuttal, ever haunts. Author despair and triumph, over mighty data struggles, is disclosed throughout.

Ancestors meld facts into a family tale, consistent with the beloved man, Grandfather would become. They were genial people, with toil in the content of their day. They thread the needles that wove the fabric of Scotland, as the Industrial Revolution unfolded.