"I don't see how you could find it anymore peaceful. The man whom Jane Blasio came to know as her father told her all of this, after she had grown up and married, after the death of the woman she called her mother. Instead, he illegally sold the babies for approximately $800 to $1,000 each. In a sense, Mrs. Blasio sees it that way, too. And my mom, who sees all these matches and wants to know how the fuck she has so many relatives? Dec 15, 2021 Season 2 Episode 6. He also told the mothers that their babies died, gave them death certificates but then sold the baby out the back door for $1000. ''All those years of looking in the mirror and wondering where I came from, where I got the hair and the eyes, not one moment did I ever have any anger toward her,'' Mrs. Blasio said. This is how this group of babies, who are now all grown up, came to be called Hicks Babies. but i can't find me any where an i don't know if the people that raised. Mrs. Blasio, a former insurance claims investigator who knows how to follow a trail, has come here five times, drawn by the slim chance she might connect with someone across a lane of Georgia asphalt, or in the I.G.A. She never found her, but the search for her mother shook loose a secret. She had been told when she was 5 years old that she was adopted, but in 1988 she learned that she was purchased in the drowsy little town of McCaysville, Ga., just across the Tennessee line. Paying $200 to $1,000, the families left McCaysvillle with a bundle of joy and a bonafide birth certificate. I hope that you have found this article interesting, and that you understand more about the story of Dr. Hicks and how the individuals who were adopted through his clinic might be able to use DNA results to discover the identities of their biological parents. Dawson has known since age 7 her parents got her from the McCaysville clinic run by Hicks, who died in 1972. She dropped off the face of the earth, Conrad said. DNA testing, impossible a decade ago, can now make the connection, and plug the holes in the past. No reference was made of the real mother. Please SHARE this with your friends and family. He died in 1972 at age 83, which was 25 years before the shocking story of his black market baby ring came to light. The Hicks Babies share an urgency to find their roots and uncover the truth about Dr. Hicks' clinic before the clock runs out. grocery, where the parking lot is partly in McCaysville, partly in Copperhill, Tenn. She does not know if her mother held her, or even saw her face. I don't understand why they think he was so horrible. JaneBlasio began her birth search in the early 80s at 18, this journey has taken her from phone calls, pre-internet research, knocking on doors and meeting in back parking lots at night, to DNA matches and a blackmarket business run by a small town doctor that sold 200+ babies That memory stuck with Dawson. And in 1972, Hicks died at age 83. Many are still trying to find their biological relatives. Some of Hicks Babies, as they are sometimes referred to as, have done DNA tests in order to identify relatives who might be able to help them learn who their birth parents were. "They were instructed to come downcome through the front door, pick the baby up and leave through the back door and, and go home immediately," Dawson explained. But many aspects of his clinic remain a mystery to this day. Abandonment elsewhere? They plunked down their money and got a baby, and a birth certificate that was genuine, except for the lies. Before he died two years ago, Jane's father told her everything he could remember about Hicks Clinic. Since the undercover operation was exposed, many Hicks Babies have desperately searched for their origins, yet decades later, they are still looking for their birth parents. At the. ''This is just too bizarre for real life,'' said Judge Linda Davis of Fannin County Probate Court, who has risked the ire of people in her county to help Mrs. Blasio in her quest through county birth records. Some traffickers also use drugs and alcohol to control them. Taken At Birth will share the untold stories of the "Hicks Babies," the name given to more than 200 newborn babies illegally sold or given away from the back steps of a small-town Georgia clinic run by Dr. Thomas J. Hicks during the 1950s and 1960s. Like our Facebook page to get more stories. Kathleen Shipman is a contributor at SBLY Media. Everywhere, in this little pocket of the world, are testimonials to him. ''He saved my life,'' said Herb Hood, 69, who had pneumonia when he was a boy. At the very least, she helps them learn more about their birth stories and roots. There are stories that even suggest that some mothers were told that their babies did not survive at birth. This kind of horrifies me! A son and a daughter were born to the couple. The McCaysville group is connected to Dr. Thomas Hicks, the town doctor and a popular, church-going man, revered by locals for his generosity. The winners are: Princetons Nima Arkani-Hamed, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten. Dr. Thomas Hicks ran a medical clinic in the hardscrabble north Georgia town of McCaysville from 1955 until 1964. Quietly, because the clinic he'd been running since the mid-1940s was not a licensed adoption agency. It was Mother's Day of 1997 when Reymann saw a story in the Akron Beacon Journal featuring the story of Jane Blasio who had discovered she had been illegally sold as an infant for $1,000 from a clinic run by Dr. Thomas Hicks in McCaysville, Ga. some three decades earlier. All of the babies were children of mothers who were persuaded to give up their children for adoption, and were not biological children of Dr. Hicks. "My mom took me for a car ride and just stopped and proceeded to tell me that even though she loved me, she was not my real mom, that I had come from a clinic in Georgia," she said. How many of Dr Hicks babies found relatives? Im being optimistic, but Im a realist, said Payne, as the testing drew to a close Saturday. ''All my life, I've felt like I didn't belong, like I didn't fit in. She is close with the group, however, and is considered part of the family. Despite the fact that Hicks, his wife, and his son have all passed away, his daughter is still living. Her birth parents were never named on the one-page document, only the names of her adoptive parents. Think he may have figured it was more hassle than just enjoying his life. With the aid of a Georgia probate judge who became her friend, she learned that Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks, beloved by the farmers, miners and townspeople he had healed, sold as many as 200 babies from 1951 to 1965, according to county birth records. It could take up to three months to test all the participants samples, but whats 90 days compared to the lifetime these baby boomers have been waiting to find their birth families? She is one of about 200 people known as "Hicks Babies," named for Dr. Thomas Jugarthy Hicks, a beloved, small-town physician who trafficked in black market babies from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s until he was arrested for performing illegal abortions and lost his medical license. , Does Wittenberg have a strong Pre-Health professions program? - one of the Hicks babies was found to have been born in another place by another doctor so now they are on the search for another illegal baby . In the town, people said it was better than seeing young girls butchered in filthy, back-room abortions. People knew. This time there was no play-acting. The doctor persuaded some of the women who came to him for abortions to carry their pregnancies to term, and then sold the infants to couples for $800 to $1,000. Reply Quote Report. Today, these babies are referred to as "Hicks babies." Hicks was a known abortionist and the illegal adoptions came to an end in 1964, when Hicks was caught performing illegal abortions. Source: And in 1972, Hicks died at age 83. A fake birth certificate was produced, listing the adoptive parents as the parents of the child. Couple turns old garage into beautiful 370 sq ft home perfect for grandma, Hero rescue dog finds shivering 3-year-old girl in a ditch, Couple get note in the mail humiliating them for eyesore unpainted home but then kindness wins, Man offers to hold strangers baby in waiting area clueless his actions will make headlines, Mom gets emotional when teacher sends photo of 5-yr-old son with classmate he insists is his twin, Couple are inspired to build a small two story cottage that is incredibly unique. The black market adoptions were discovered in 1997 and a community of Hicks babies has been in contact since that time. Dr. Hicks nursed him back to health. How many illegitimate kids did Dr Hicks have? Sompayrac is cheering on the Hicks babies, hoping the new DNA testing that the group is seeking pays off. She was about 7 years old. In 1997, Jane Blasio first shared the story of her illegal adoption with a newspaper in Akron, Ohio. Who was our dad? A father of three who was married to a Baptist Sunday school teacher, Hicks died at age 83 in 1972, long before Blasio's digging led to the first headlines about the scandal in 1997. Hicks died at age 83 in 1972. The adoptions ended with Hicks legal troubles in 1964 not for the adoptions, but for the abortions. The news captivated many outside McCaysville. All rights reserved. Autosomal DNA tests, such as Ancestry DNA, 23andMe, My Heritage, and Family Tree DNA, offer extensive DNA match lists. From the Inside Flap Jane Blasio is a Hicks Baby, sold at birth and passed through the back door of a clinic in North Georgia. Complicating matters, Hicks provided fake birth certificates that listed the buyers as the birth parents, erasing any evidence of the babies real mothers. Hicks babies are getting older, after all. Like other adoptees, all he's uncovered is a birth certificate he believes Dr. Hicks falsified. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Thomas Hicks died in his hometown of Georgia in 1972 at the age of 83. He explained: Im very fortunate to have him, very fortunate. Apparently, Dr. Hicks had prepared her falsified birth certificate. Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site! June 12, 2021 News, TLC Shows Dr. Thomas J. Hicks is the "bad guy" featured in a three-part docuseries titled Taken At Birth. But they still know relatively little about their histories. Her son refused to test her DNA. 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