Search unites siblings after a lifetime apart
Howell woman
is found by relatives
she never knew she had
BY LINDA DeNICOLA
Staff Writer

After a long search that was started by a niece that Susan Beaton (r) of Howell never knew she had, Beaton was reunited with her long-lost siblings (l-r) Ellen Bevensee, William Pollard and Ruth Seemon.

Susan Beaton, who was 3 at the time, has no memory of being put up for adoption, but she always knew she was adopted. Her adoptive mother had told her that she came from an orphanage.

Beaton grew up as an only child. Eventually she married, adopted two children of her own and lost both of her adoptive parents. Ironically, her father died in 1984, the same year that her birth mother passed away.

Now, at the age of 65 and thanks to the efforts of a niece she did not even know she had, Beaton has three siblings and an abundance of extended family members.

"I had a wonderful life growing up, but I was an only child," said the Howell resident. "This has been quite a trip."

As for why Beaton was put up for adoption, no one knows for sure. Her birth mother took that story to the grave. It is known that Beaton’s mother married at one point and gave birth to Ellen, who is 13 months younger than Susan.

Ellen Bevensee, who lives in Maryland, always thought she was the oldest in a family of three siblings. She is 64 now, her sister Ruth Seemon is 57 and lives in Voorhees while brother William Pollard is 45 and lives in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

It is Ruth’s daughter, Dawn Piatkowski, who is responsible for uniting the family. It took some time, Piatkowski said, but once she contacted the right people the effort moved quickly along. The organization she eventually contacted was Youth Consultation Service (YCS), East Orange.

Piatkowski explained how it all came about.

"My Aunt Ellen had always thought she was the firstborn child in her family until a lawyer discovered evidence of an older sibling on her birth certificate," she said.

According to Piatkowski, Ellen was going on a trip to Alaska and needed a copy of her long form birth certificate. Her lawyer got one for her and asked her if she knew that she had another sibling. Piatkowski said he explained to Ellen that the birth certificate reported "two living children."

Piatkowski asked her aunt to send her a copy of the birth certificate because she was doing a family genealogy at the time.

"I tried to research it, but I didn’t have a name, or even the sex of the child. All I had was a time frame," she said.

The only shred of information Piatkowski knew for sure was that her grandmother had lived in Newark and that her long-lost aunt (as it later turned out) was probably born there out of wedlock.

Piatkowski said she gave up the search for a couple of years, but when Ellen’s son became the father of a little girl, Ellen’s godmother called to express her congratulations.

"She was friends with my grand­mother. My mother called her and she gave us some background information. At the time, my grandparents lived in Newark," Piatkowski said.

After a lengthy circuitous search that led to the Newark Public Library, Piatkowski learned from a very astute li­brarian of the defunct Newark Orphan Asylum. He told her the unknown child might have been placed there and that YCS was holding all of the agency’s old files.

YCS had obtained hundreds of adop­tion files, including those from the asy­lum, as part of a lease agreement with Newark Home for Foster Care. Recently, YCS Foster Care Programs and Adoption Services sorted and cataloged all of the records in the hope of helping adoptees in search of their roots, said a YCS spokesperson.

After several more phone calls, Piatkowski was put in touch with Kim Garfinkel, the administrator of the YCS Foster Care Programs and Adoption Services. Garfinkel found the unknown child’s adoption papers by looking under the name of Piatkowski’s grandmother (the child’s mother).

"Because of privacy laws, I could only tell Ms. Piatkowski her aunt’s first name, her age and the circumstances of her adoption, Garfinkel said.

For Ruth’s sake, Piatkowski wanted more information and requested that Garfinkel conduct a search for her aunt in the hope that the woman would consent to a meeting.

Garfinkel began the process by at­tempting to contact the adoptive parents.

"I went to the address listed on the adoption papers in the hope of finding someone in the neighborhood who would remember the family," she said.

After knocking on many doors, she came away empty-handed. However, fur­ther paper searches led to a relative of the adoptive parents who was able to put Garfinkel in touch with Susan Beaton, the adopted child.

"Once we got it rolling it took a couple of months and $400 to pay for the re­search," Piatkowski said.

"When Kim called and told me that my biological family members had sought me out and wanted to meet me, I was shocked," Beaton said.

After talking for awhile, Beaton con­sented to meet with Garfinkel to learn about her birth family. Beaton came to the meeting with her adult daughter and for two hours they rode an emotional roller coaster as Beaton learned about her heritage.

"Kim was very sensitive to the situa­tion and our needs," Beaton said.

A short time later, Beaton and her sis­ter Ruth met, along with their daughters.

"At first it was a little awkward, but we all seem to get along fine now," Piatkowski said. "We’re just thrilled to have her in our family. She looks a lot like our grandmother. Her hands, hair, mannerisms and some of her features are like other members of the family. In August, we had a big party at my house, the whole family came. I just met her re­cently and brought her to my grandmoth­er’s grave. Then we went out to lunch with my Uncle Bill. I’ve given her docu­ments and pictures."

Garfinkel noted that not all searches proceed so smoothly.

"I’ve spent up to six months tracking down family members, going from grave­yards to search for clues on tombstones, to the archives of libraries to hunt through antique directories, she said.

Her reward is the gratification of see­ing families get closure, whether or not they are able to reunite with their fami­lies, Garfinkel said.

Meanwhile, back in Howell, the Beatons have a large extended family now that not only includes Susan’s rela­tives, but also includes her 33-year-old daughter’s birth family.

"My daughter found her birth father and her siblings. They also have families. We went from three of us to all of these people," Beaton said.

YCS is about to celebrate more than 85 years of service in New Jersey. YCS has an Internet Web site at www.ycs.org.