For the past two years, I have been corresponding with an online friend. Together we are researching his family history. We have located some answers, but with every answer we discover additional questions always follow.
Bill Stevenson was born as Ralph Emil William Meyers on September 1, 1939 in Bronx, New York the son of Stella (Abraham) Meyers and Herman Meyers. He was of Jewish Heritage and he was ironically, born on the day that Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Bill is the great nephew of Hattie Carnegie.
Bill was three years old when his mother, Stella Abraham divorced his birth father, Herman. A few years later Stella remarried Howard Stevenson. Howard legally adopted Bill and raised him as his own. Bill always considered Howard his real father because he raised him, loved him and was there for the important events in his life.
We all have a curiosity about our heritage, and Bill wasn’t an exception. It’s actually more fascinating when you discover that your heritage and bloodline included famous and internationally known celebrities and successful business people.
Bill was told that Hattie Carnegie was his great aunt on the side of his birth father and that Hattie’s younger sister , Celia was his paternal grandmother. . Celia named her son in the honor of her beloved older brother, Herman who practically raised Celia when her father Isaac died when she was a baby herself. There was a bitter custody fight for Bill, unlike the honorable uncle he was named for, his birth father Herman had exited out of his life, and didn’t want to be a father to him, so he cut ties with Bill when he was young.. Howard wanted to adopt Bill and he eventually did. Bill actually remembers spending time with his grandmother, Celia who babysat with him when he was a toddler. We are not one-hundred percent certain, whether it was the news of the impending adoption, or Herman’s abandonment of his son, but somehow a piece of the news reached the Carnegie family. This news led to Hattie and Celia filing a suit against Bill’s mother attempting to prove her as an unfit mother or to stop an adoption from taking place, but they actually attempted to try to take Bill away from his mother Stella. The suit was either eventually dropped by the Carnegie family or Stella won and retained custody of Bill Stella was very upset, by this action orchestrated by Hattie. There was bitterness on both sides of the battle for Bill , and family ties were severed with the Carnegie family. This lawsuit was a major mistake on Hattie’s part, because many people were hurt by this action that was taken by Hattie to help her sister. Maybe if the Carnegie family hadn’t frightened Stella that her son would be taken from her, perhaps family ties would have continued if not with Herman, at least with the extended family, and Bill might have known his aunt Hattie and his grandmother Celia. I believe that Hattie and Celia definitely loved Bill, that was why they attempted to keep him within the family but they were thinking very irrationally with their hearts and not with their heads when the suit was filed, and in the process Stella was heartbroken and fearful, that they would take her only son away whom she also loved.
The last time that Bill saw his birth father was when he was ten years old. Herman visited Bill in Philadelphia with a woman who was probably his new wife. That was final contact that he ever had with Herman. When he was a teenager, Bill asked his mother if she could contact Herman or the Carnegie/Meyers family, for him. We don’t know if Stella contacted Herman himself or some other family member, we do know that it could not have been Hattie, because she had recently passed away. Anyway, whomever Stella contacted on behalf on Bill, sadly told that they did not wish to meet with him. Bill attempted to write to his father, and he doesn’t know if the letters reached the correct destination or if they had were ever even opened or read, because he never received a response.
Two years ago, Bill still wanted answers as to his heritage, his mother had passed away, so he could no longer ask her for the answers, but he wanted to find out about his family that he never knew. He wanted to know if he had half-siblings or cousins that he could learn about the family from or get to know them as friends or acquaintances. He conducted a search on MSN and typed in Hattie Carnegie that was how he located this site. We began to email back and forth trying to locate information about the Carnegie family.
I can understand Bill wanting to learn about his biological family, my brother Eric was also adopted and he wishes to contact his birth mother or siblings (if any) he even went to see a lawyer about five years ago a He was permitted to view his records, even though it was a closed adoption. Eric was one of the last private adoptions in the State of Maine. He was born in 1975, and adopted by my parents at three months of age. State law says that a meeting cannot take place unless both parties request a meeting and the state is not allowed to contact Eric’s birth mother, but if she contacted the state, they could contact Eric, so far nothing. I hope that Eric can meet his birth mother, I was two and a half years old when my brother was adopted so I don’t remember a thing about the adoption of my brother, however I am able to better understand Bill’s situation from a personal standpoint as a sibling of an adoptee.
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