My grandfather was born around 1922. I was told he was adopted as a baby by Daniel and Mary Jo Reid. He later looked for his biological family and it seems that he found information that led him to believe his biological mother’s maiden name was Chipman and that she died in a car accident. He changed his name, but it was misspelled so that he was Joseph Chetman instead of Chipman. Later, he discovered information that led him to believe his father’s last name was Strickland. My father said that Mr. Strickland had been married twice and between the two marriages he had many children and so put some for adoption.
I found Daniel and Mary Josephine Reid who had a son Joseph born around 1924. All records seem to point to this as my grandfather’s adoptive family. My father said that he and my grandparents lived with the Reids for the first few years of my father’s life.
I have also found a Charlotte (Chipman) Strickland who married William Thomas Strickland. William had married a Rebecca Peddle before Charlotte. However, they did not have 22 children. Charlotte was in a car accident that caused her death, but it happened in 1936 at which time my grandfather would have been at least 12 years old. However, my father remembers some of the names of the children Charlotte and William had (Fredrick, Margaret, Dorothy, Selby, William). I have a feeling this is the family my grandfather found, but maybe he had mistakenly thought they were his biological family. It sounds like he met with some of the Chipmans and perhaps some of the Stricklands later on.
I am not sure what information my grandfather had about his biological family or how he found the information. I would like to untangle the mystery of his family.