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56 4 On the Road Often my labors seem non-existent. I once explained to a friend that half of my time is taken up just standing good for the basic idea of the Center, as if I lay there in the dark like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike, but in this case my finger is to keep the thing open. —Jean Paton, 1955 As early as January 1954, even before she began writing The Adopted Break Silence, Paton was “planning an additional field trip into the middle west.”1 At the beginning of December 1954 Paton sent out the formal notice, announcing that she was undertaking a second adoption study,“To Be Chosen: The Family Life of the Adopted,” which fourteen years later would be published as Orphan Voyage.2 In this announcement Paton identified the area for study as a midwestern state, which she chose because many U.S. adoptions had first occurred there. She provided several reasons for embarking on a second study so soon. Besides wanting “to fill some of the lacks in the first one,” Paton also wished to elaborate on some of the material in The Adopted Break Silence, such as an examination of the developmental struggles of older adult adoptees, under the guiding hypothesis that there existed “a universal appetite for security within Society.”3 In late December, Paton issued a second announcement, which offered more precise reasons why she decided to undertake a second study. Several people had been interested in knowing more about Paton’s personal views and experience on the subject, a few of the study’s respondents had expressed an interest in identifying additional aspects of the “adoptive character,” and “there were criticisms of the sample.”4 Having decided by January 10 that Michigan would be her destination, Paton sent an announcement, similar to the one placed in the Saturday Re- On the Road 57 view of Literature, to many Michigan newspapers, large libraries, and every county public-welfare department. It was headed “Adoption Study by Michigan Woman,” and its first sentence read,“Men and Women who were adopted before 1910, and who are living in Michigan, are being sought out by the Life History Study Center in Philadelphia.”5 The announcement went on to state that“Miss Jean M. Paton” had been born in Detroit and raised in Ypsilanti and since the fall of 1953 had been studying adoption“from the point of view of the adopted.” This second study would differ slightly in its methodology from the first: Paton would venture out on a“field trip”and conduct personal interviews.6 The announcement stated that “Miss Paton” would arrive in Michigan in the late winter or early spring to talk with adult adoptees, giving the address of the Life History Study Center for people to contact if interested. A follow-up announcement sent to those who responded included the now familiar questionnaire , but Paton did not intend to rely on the written responses because she planned to interview all of the participants. By this time, Paton had also decided that she would make two trips to Michigan, the first during the last four days of February, when she would stop at Lansing, Bay City, and points in between; and the second in late March, to the northern part of Michigan.7 Paton’s arrival was made easier by several notices in Michigan newspapers.8 Paton had an additional reason for heading to the midwest, and specifically Michigan, for a second adoption study. She had decided that it was time for her to search for her own birth mother. The issue had haunted Paton, off and on, for a long time, but she had delayed searching for multiple reasons. Having been raised in a good family who protected her from the stigma of adoption and illegitimacy, Paton was not driven to make a search. In addition, she did not want to offend her adoptive mother while she was alive.9 After her adoptive mother’s death in 1950, Paton longed to reunite with her birth mother but had still delayed because“I usually wound up deciding that she would not feel the same way.” Still, she was lucky: although her birth mother had falsified the family name on Paton’s original birth certificate the Patons had supplied it to her. It was Cutting.10 Paton consulted Detroit’s Polk city directories and found her mother’s name listed twice at the family address...

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