I was adopted and knew very little about my birth family. I was told I was 100% Irish, that I had older brothers, that my mother was in her 40s when I was born and that I had an uncle who was a monsignor.
Some truth was told, but I discovered more of the story of my family. I am sure that I will spend many years learning more stories and so I have created this blog to chronicle it all. There is no particular order. I will post info and stories as I learn of them.
My birth parents are both dead. They both died in 2000 and other than at my birth, I have not met them. I am not going to worry about invading anyone's privacy. This is my story to be told. Maybe some of you will learn about yourself or your roots while visiting.
adoption papers
My adoptive parents gave me my adoption papers in 2011. Here were the papers that were locked and hidden in my adoptive parent's safe for 47 years with the names of my birth parents on it. I looked and saw my birth name was simply: Baby Girl Koski.
2 things struck me: I had no first name and Koski didn't sound very Irish to me.
I read through the papers and saw that Koski was my birth mother's married name and she had tried to use her maiden name, Hogan, as my last name, but the clerk had it corrected to Koski. this was 1962 so there wasn't the instant-ability of recreating a document. They had used ink remover tape or erased the incorrect name and then retyped and/or inserted Koski over the Hogan names.
I read the names of my birth mother and father: Agnes Hogan Koski and William Henry Dunstan. I had wanted a name to attach myself to and here it was; well here they were. Hogan and Dunstan, and they did sound like Irish names so maybe my adoptive parents were right about me being 100% Irish.
Agnes was listed as 43 years old, divorced, and William, 26 years old, single. Though Agnes wasn't really 43 when I was born.
Actually she was 45. Once I began digging through the US census I found her listed as born in 1916-17. not sure why she made herself 2 years younger. Did she forget how old she was? Or didn't want to acknowledge her real age? Whatever the reason, she didn't want the actual truth to be told - about her age anyway.
Some truth was told, but I discovered more of the story of my family. I am sure that I will spend many years learning more stories and so I have created this blog to chronicle it all. There is no particular order. I will post info and stories as I learn of them.
My birth parents are both dead. They both died in 2000 and other than at my birth, I have not met them. I am not going to worry about invading anyone's privacy. This is my story to be told. Maybe some of you will learn about yourself or your roots while visiting.
adoption papers
My adoptive parents gave me my adoption papers in 2011. Here were the papers that were locked and hidden in my adoptive parent's safe for 47 years with the names of my birth parents on it. I looked and saw my birth name was simply: Baby Girl Koski.
2 things struck me: I had no first name and Koski didn't sound very Irish to me.
I read through the papers and saw that Koski was my birth mother's married name and she had tried to use her maiden name, Hogan, as my last name, but the clerk had it corrected to Koski. this was 1962 so there wasn't the instant-ability of recreating a document. They had used ink remover tape or erased the incorrect name and then retyped and/or inserted Koski over the Hogan names.
I read the names of my birth mother and father: Agnes Hogan Koski and William Henry Dunstan. I had wanted a name to attach myself to and here it was; well here they were. Hogan and Dunstan, and they did sound like Irish names so maybe my adoptive parents were right about me being 100% Irish.
Agnes was listed as 43 years old, divorced, and William, 26 years old, single. Though Agnes wasn't really 43 when I was born.
Actually she was 45. Once I began digging through the US census I found her listed as born in 1916-17. not sure why she made herself 2 years younger. Did she forget how old she was? Or didn't want to acknowledge her real age? Whatever the reason, she didn't want the actual truth to be told - about her age anyway.
