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Long journey leads Boardman woman to birth family
BOARDMAN
Last month was a life-changing time for Boardman resident Judy Hall.
In August, Hall who was adopted when she was born in 1947 at Jameson Hospital in New Castle, Pa., reunited her birth family.
Hall learned she was adopted when she was 12 — a cousin blurted it out during an argument — but said she didn’t want to pursue finding her birth parents right away.
“I had the best parents. They spoiled me,” Hall said. “I would never have wanted to hurt them, and I waited until they were gone. ... My parents always said I was very special because I was adopted.”
Her mother, Eleanor Jenkins, died in 1986 and her father, William Jenkins, died in 1988. They are both listed on Hall’s birth certificate as is Hall’s maiden name, “Judith Ann Jenkins.”
When she was 21, Hall asked the doctor who had delivered her about her birth parents. He told her that her mother died in childbirth. Three years later and pregnant with her first child, Hall returned to the doctor.
“I was terrified. He said, ‘I lied to you. Your mother did not die,’” Hall said.
Many years later, Hall was able to coax a name out of the doctor: Perry and Florence Emmett were her birth parents. She made several attempts to find the Emmett family without success.
Then Hall went to the grocery store and ran into a neighborhood friend, Bill Phillips, who had talked to Hall about tracing his family history back hundreds of years. She asked him to look into her ancestry.
And so began Phillips’ research into Hall’s birth parents. His biggest struggle was learning Florence’s maiden name, Glitch. He eventually located it through New Castle News archives.
Five hours after starting his research, Phillips had the phone number for one of Hall’s birth relatives, her aunt Betty Dilks, of Girard.
“She was wondering whether to call or not, and I told her, ‘I didn’t do this for nothing,’” Phillips said, chuckling.
After getting information about the woman Phillips believed to be her mother’s sister, Betty (Glitch) Dilks, Hall took a deep breath and dialed the number.
“When she picked up, I said ‘Hi, my name is Judy Hall and I was born in 1947 and I was doing this search on my birth parents and looking for Florence Emmett,’” Hall said. “And in response, she says, ‘Florence was my sister, and we wondered where you were.’”
Dilks said she was “very amazed” to receive the phone call, but did have to relay the news that Florence had died nine years ago.
The two talked on the phone the next few days and then agreed to meet in Girard at Dilks’ home with Hall’s uncles Tom Glitch, and his wife Shirley Glitch, and Lew Glitch. The group gathered together again at Hall’s Boardman home about three weeks ago to meet with The Vindicator, along with Jean Thompson, a close friend and mother-like figure to Hall.
“I had been praying for [Hall] a week before and I never knew anything about her,” Dilks said.
“It was tremendous. It was great. I was overseas [serving in World War II] when the adoption happened,” Lew Glitch said. “I see my sister in her. Judy fit right into the family. We love her, and we’re glad she found us.”
Dilks said her sister Florence and brother-in-law Perry had decided to put Judy up for adoption because of finances. The couple already had two children, and many of the extended family were living together in a tiny house in western Pennsylvania.
“We are very grateful that she had a good family,” Dilks said.
Hall, who has two sons of her own, Rob Bindas, 41, and Scott Fredericks, 33, and enjoys a career at Community Caregivers, said she’s had the best of both worlds: loving adoptive parents and a birth family who accepted her when she found them.
She also learned she has a half-sister, Karen Mills, who lives in Palm Coast, Fla.
“It’s really a shock to hear from her,” Mills said. “It’s been so many years, but now we talk every day, and we’re getting closer and closer.”
Mills said when she was about 16, she and her younger brother were told Judy was adopted.
“I wanted to look for her too but I didn’t know where or how to look. I’m so excited and now when I don’t hear from her, I get worried,” Mills said.
Hall said children who have been adopted should give a lot of thought and contemplation before trying to track down their birth parents.
“If it’s really, really bothering them, then they should go for it. Reach out and see what’s there, and hopefully you’ll have found your happily ever after,” Hall said.