Raymond Doyle, Again

Do you have a relative who won't leave you alone, who keeps coming to mind, wanting his or her information to be found?  Raymond is one of those people in my family.  Every few years he gives me a nudge, just about the time some new record set where he might be found becomes available online; or sometimes when I haven't given him a thought for a year or so.  Finding information and records for Raymond, an adopted son, have been a challenge.  In truth, the only information I have comes from family and census records.

Raymond was born between 1904 and 1905.  He was adopted by my great-grandparents, William and Tressa (Froman) Doyle before 1910.  Census records provide the following information.

• 1910:  age  6, adopted son, living with William and Tressa Doyle in Stoneboro, Mercer County, Penna
• 1920:  age 14, inmate living at the State Institution for the Feeble-minded in Polk, Venango County, Penna
• 1930:  age 25, inmate living at the Polk State School for the Feeble-minded, Venango County, Penna
  
• 1940:  age 35, inmate living at the Polk State School (Feeble-minded), Venango County, Penna
  
• 1950:  age 45, inmate living at Mercer County Home, Coolspring Township, Mercer County, Penna  (Image below.)
  

This 1950 census (Penna, Mercer, Coolspring Twp., E.D. 43-3, Sheet 5, Line 3) is my newest record for Raymond.  My memory of meeting him between 1958 and 1960 at the Mercer County home is partially supported by this 1950 U.S. Census.  In the 1920-1940 census records he was living at Polk.  It's possible he was moved to Polk again after 1950 but I doubt it.

Two factors complicate finding what I'd most like to know about Raymond:  his birth records, an adoption record, and his death record.

Factor #1.  Adoption records are sealed in Mercer County Pennsylvania, no matter the date of the adoption.  It might be possible to petition a judge to open Raymond's file but, in fact, I don't know that there was a legal adoption.  Neither do I know his birth surname.  An older family member suggested that he may have been born to the Page family but I could not find evidence to support that idea.

Factor #2.  Raymond likely died in the county home.  I cannot find a burial record, nor even a death record (yet), let alone an obituary.  Pennsylvania death records are available through 1971 but checking the Penna Death Indexes from 1954 through 1971, I did not find a likely candidate for my Raymond Doyle.  A death certificate would probably give a burial location and date--if I had a death certificate.  And finding an obituary seems unlikely for a man who lived in the county home, especially considering that most family members had already died (assuming he died after 1971).  Which also means that no one would have been available to buy a gravestone.

Edited to add:  At the date of this post, Pennsylvania death certificates created after those published online at Ancestry, hence from 1972 to the present, are available for purchase at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.  However, they limit those who may purchase certificates to close family members and some legal representatives.  See the application here.

Once again, I'll put this search to rest for a while and return when other records become available or when a new search strategy comes to mind.  I'm sure Raymond will give me a nudge if I wait too long.

Have you ever petitioned a judge to open an adoption record?  If so, how did it go?  I can't imagine success for that effort without any record that there was, in fact, a legal adoption.

 Previous posts about Raymond

• Raymond  - An Unusual Christmas Memory
• Raymond Doyle, the Adopted Son
• What to Do About Raymond   I decided to add Raymond to my family tree in RootsMagic.
  

—Nancy.

Copyright © 2022 Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
.

What to Do about Raymond

Raymond Doyle has once again been on my mind.  I always think of him at Christmas but this time he came to mind when The 70273 Project crossed my path a few months ago.  It is a quilting effort to commemorate 70,273 of the infants, children, and adults who were killed by Nazis because they were physically or mentally disabled.  How could I not think of Raymond?  He would likely have been put to death had he lived in Germany during Hitler's reign. 

I'm not sure where to place Raymond in my family tree, or even whether to add him yet.  In the 1910 U.S. Census he is recorded as "adopted son" in the family of my great-grandparents, William and Tressa Doyle.  That and the fact that throughout his life he used the surname Doyle are my only indications that there may have been a legal adoption.

I forgot that I had asked an older, distant Doyle cousin about Raymond a number of years ago.  I found her letter the other evening.  Lyda Kelly Brest, the one generally thought to be the holder of family history among generations of Doyles, responded to my questions about Raymond.  This is what she wrote about him in January, 2011.  (I had asked if the reasons Raymond had been adopted by my great-grandparents was because his parents had been killed in a fire.  I was trying to imagine the reasons why parents would give up a child.  My daughter just reminded me of the stigma associated with a special needs child at that time.)  "Uncle Bill" refers to William Doyle, my great-grandfather and her great-uncle.  Hazel is his daughter, sister to my grandfather, Gust Doyle.  Lyda's "Grandma" was Elizabeth Jane Doyle, William's sister.

No, I do not remember Raymond, but heard my Grandma speak of him.  He was of the Page family in Stoneboro.  Uncle Bill's daughter Hazel took a liking to him & it was through her they took him to raise.  He definetly [sic] was limited & was in Polk Institution a great part of his life, as far as I know.  I never heard of his family being in a fire.  Uncle Bill was very frugal, & [I] was always surprised at him getting involved with Raymond, but Hazel apparently won him over.

Without proof (yet) of Raymond's formal adoption and now (tentatively) knowing his surname of birth, I'm still in a quandary about whether to add Raymond to my tree or create one for him with his family of birth.  Perhaps the best choice at the moment is to continue research.  It seems clear to me that Raymond wants his records to be found and to be placed with a family.  After living with my great-grandparents through his youth, then living the rest of his life in a state home "for the feeble-minded," I can imagine his joy at having his records associated with his family.  But which one?

And as strange as it may be, I think of Raymond as family.  Not exactly a great uncle, because though an adult in years he never quite matured to adulthood, but a family member, nonetheless.

Raymond has been the subject of two previous blog posts, here and here.

--Nancy.

Copyright ©2018, Nancy Messier.  All Rights Reserved. 
Do not copy or use any content from this blog without written permission from the owner. 
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