Diary of an Adoptee: Down the wrong path #443

I just spent the afternoon at the Shelby County Library, hoping to find some pictures of my suspected birth mother and her siblings in the Shelbyville High School annuals. When I first pulled up to the location, I thought it was closed, but instead the entrance had been altered due to construction. They actually have an entire building, directly across from the original Shelbyville High School, devoted strictly to genealogy. I had the librarian pull all the annuals from 1941 through 1951 that would surely list some of the eight Banister children who had assumed went to school there in that decade.

It reminded me of over thirty years ago, back in 1985, when I first got the name of my birth mother, Edna Faye Bannister and an Indianapolis address that I originally thought was her’s at the time of my birth. I immediately went to nearby Wishard Memorial Hospital, that eventually closed in 2004, to get a copy of my birth certificate. As it turned out, the address was the Suemma Coleman adoption home where the mother and I were housed before and after delivery. This insured her privacy as an unmarried woman, and any related discomfort in being near friends and family. I also went to nearby High School, Indianapolis Shortridge, and looked through their annuals in search of photos, as I did again today. (See Post #104)

The results were the same today, as they were 33 years ago – not a single Bannister or Banister in any of the classes. I had obviously gone down the wrong path again in this search for my roots. Because she was born and spent her childhood in Shelbyville as the legal documents indicated, I thought that she continued to grow up there. The family must have moved at some point after the 1940 census. It still remains a mystery why Dovan and Lizzie Banister, who I have not yet been able to connect with the family, were listed as head of household, rather than her parents, Ivan O. Banister and Ruby M. Taylor?

I did find an article from 1959 about my likely birth mother’s brother, Charles Ray, and his marriage that indicated that he graduated from high school in North Vernon, Indiana. It’s therefore, highly probable that Edna went to the same high school, and that I need to check the North Vernon annuals instead for any photos. It is destroys my fantasy of any connection to the Shelbyville High school state basketball championship in 1947. One of the advantages to being adopted is that you can “make-up” anything you want about your background, as I apparently did in this case. I’ll have to find a new story about “Banister World” related to North Vernon. (See Post #422).

I have discovered that being your own Private Eye is not easy, and that this investigation into my birth mother has taken many twists along the way. It would be so easy if I just had heard back from my probable half-brother, Jerry Lee, who apparently has not come to terms with the relationship between my background and his. (See Post #393).  I’m not sure how I would have handled the situation, and I apologize if it has created an uncomfortable situation. However, I’m not ready to give up, even though it appears like he is skeptical of my intentions. It looks like I will have to blaze a new path.