In 1946, Don Davis, was adopted (or purchased on the Canadian baby market) from the Ideal Maternity Home in East Chester, Nova Scotia. This infamous place was known to tell mostly unwed, young mothers that their baby had died, and pretend to bury their newborns in coffins from the local dairy (AKA "Butterbox Babies"), only to be sold to welcoming parents from abroad. MORE...
For a more in-depth story, below is a link on the home:
www.idealmaternityhomesurvivor...
journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php...
A book was written, and a movie made and as well.
Book:
shopatsullivan.com/index.php/b...
Movie:
Butterbox Babies (1995)
• Butterbox Babies (Offi...
The Ideal Maternity Home mysteriously burned down in the early 1960s, along with all the records.
Don's story was featured on Los Angeles Channel 2 on CBS in 1998. Nothing much came from the news story afterwards, until Don's wife found travel records, while visiting New York City in 2012, of him arriving into the United States back in 1946. Since then, one of Don's sons had done extensive research online with Ancestry.com and other search sites, as well as verification websites in order to get as much information as they could. Additional answers followed, coming from two separate DNA research services (Ancestry.com & 23andMe.com); which confirmed they came from a "Clancy" family tree.
On St. Patrick's Day (3.17.2016), in honor of his new-found Irish background, Don's son decided to ask Facebook to help share the story, which resulted in over 5,000 Facebook shares (as of 3.24.16) in the North American cyberspace and over 100 emails interested in the story, assisting in the search, and providing leads... that AFTER 4-6 DAYS, IT WAS SOLVED! Don found the branch of the tree he came from. Although his mother had passed back in 2009, he came to learn of, and speak to, many new family members, that since 1946, he had never knew were out there.
The power of the Facebook community!
Don and his family would like to thank many people, over the past 20+ years who have helped fill in the puzzle pieces, and help fill in a part of Don's heart that had been lost for so long:
Drew Griffin of CBS then (CNN now), Judy Gibson, Abbe Vance (our Search Angel), Irene Richardson + Heather Davis + Emily Boss (for giving the family definitive leads), Mary & Jean Brown, Michael Scott, Johnny Storms, Brian Davis (son who spearheaded the search), Jan Davis (wife), Tom Davis (son), and Shari Davis (daughter-in-law).