This is a follow up to Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. I loved that book and knew I wanted to read this one. I was fascinated as well as heartbroken reading the stories told by actual men and women that were adopted through the Tennessee Children's Home Society. I still find it hard to believe that this actually happened in this country, and that many families were torn apart and lied to all because of one evil woman, Georgia Tann. I found this book very moving and well written. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy

Author Lisa Wingate’s biography on Amazon tells how her first grade teacher stood looking down at her desk, reading Lisa’s story and reacting with comments such as "This is a great story! I wonder what happens next?" Years and several novels later, Wingate’s historical novel Before We were Yours made Booklist’s Top 10 for 2017 and 2018, telling the fictional story of children caught up in Georgia Tann’s crooked adoption business, which with the aid of lies, falsified documents, and corrupt politicians changed the lives of natural parents, children, and adoptive families from the 1920s until Tann’s death in 1950.

What happened next surprised Wingate and led to Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children’s Home Society--her latest release in which truth meets and enhances fiction. Elderly adults who had passed through Georgia Tann’s now infamous children’s home and been sold to adoptive parents across the country began contacting Wingate, wanting to tell her their personal stories. Children of deceased adoptees did the same, wanting to tell their parents’ stories.

Hearing the first heartbreaking but inspiring stories, Wingate knew that these survivors deserved an audience. Recruiting Judy Christie, a journalist friend, to collaborate on the project, Wingate set out to locate more adoptees, sometimes meeting or learning of them on book tour stops for Before We Were Yours. She accepted the reunion planning help offered by Connie, the first adoptee to contact her and who had spoken of reconnecting with a brother she never knew she had until 40 years after her adoption. Wingate and Christie needed help; the only date that could fit their busy schedules was only three months away!

In the pair’s resulting book, sometimes sad, sometimes happy story follows story, each revealing how Georgia Tann reshaped the adoptee’s life, some of whom had been unethically torn away from their birth families. Readers come to feel they know these people, including the alienation felt by some, the impact on their own spouses and children, the apprehensions about meeting birth families, the immediate bonds felt by many, the continuing search faced by others who have not yet found birth families, and the strong connections arising between adoptees and their families as they eventually come together for the reunion.

In Before We Were Yours, near the end of her life, the fictional character May observes, “People don’t come into our lives by accident.” Wingate and Christie make clear that the survivors of Georgia Tann’s Tennessee Children’s Home Society came into their lives for a reason.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

I really enjoyed this non-fiction companion to Lisa Wingate's popular "Before We Were Yours," which told of the many children - either orphaned or stolen - who were adopted through the Tennessee Children's Home Society, run by Georgia Tann during the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. She and many other corrupt government officials profited from the fees and downright sale of some of these children, many of whom never knew their true origins. The novel drew much praise as well as letters and email from people whose lives were touched by the adoptions. With the help of a few of the adoptees, Lisa Wingate and Judy Christie actually organized a weekend reunion of sorts for people who were affected by the adoptions.

The book alternates between telling about the details of planning the weekend reunion and telling the stories of adoptees and their families. I appreciated the tenderness and respect exhibited by the authors as they recounted each family's sometimes painful past and told of how the surviving family members were dealing with the aftermath.

This was an excellent book that will be loved by fans of "Before We Were Yours," but if readers read this one first, then they will definitely want to read the novel.

Many thanks to NetGalley for access to an advanced digital copy.

Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate is a follow-up to Ms. Wingate’s bestselling book, Before We were Yours which I reviewed two years ago (a link for that review is posted below). Ms. Christie, a journalist, and Ms. Wingate present the real stories of individuals who were stolen from their parents, from their homes and placed in illegal adoptions. As well as documented the outpouring of support for Before We Were Yours as many do not know these painful events which occurred in Memphis, Tennessee from roughly 1923 to 1950 when the scandal broke. Each story was heartbreaking as many of the victims were torn between being angry that they were taken from their families and loving the families they grew up in. Before and After helps put the physical names and faces to the events readers see in Before We Were Yours.
Some of the stories were harder to read then others. Some stories the children were stolen from very loving homes and placed in not so loving homes. Stories of uneducated, but loving parents being tricked into signing away their children. Even the adopted parents were doped by Ms. Tann as there are many stories of Jewish parents asking, and being told they were getting, a Jewish baby, only to find out years later, their baby isn’t Jewish. There was one part of the story I had to laugh, and it isn’t related to the victim’s stories. Ms. Christie was recounting a story that her older brother helped name her that she quipped “Who lets a 7-year-old name their child?” Well, my husband and I let our 6-year-old have a say in the names that were considered for our youngest daughter. It was a name we ultimately chose too. If you have read Before We were Yours, I highly recommend reading Before and After. If you haven’t read Before We were Yours, I highly recommend reading it and following up with Before and After.

Before and After
is available in hardcover and eBook

My review of Before We Were Yours
https://observationsfromasimplelife.blogspot.com/2017/07/before-we-were-yours-excellent-story.html

I was heartbroken after reading Before We Were Yours and realized that that book was based on a true story. This book is a fascinating non-fiction follow-up to that book.
After the book was published, Wingate got many e-mails from those who had been adopted through the TCHS and those who thought they might have been. She was able to facilitate some of those people to reunite and find family members that they didn't know they had or those that they couldn't find. The book follows the stories of some of those people. These are real people, this isn't fiction. The book is at times gut-wrenching, but also at times very uplifting and filled with hope. I am in awe of these people who survived this woman and her machinations. My own grandfather and his siblings were not sold through this society, but had similar circumstances being sold to different families because they were very poor. Eventually the siblings were able to find each other again, but the trauma of this carried through their whole lives. This made these stories hit a bit closer to home.
If you haven't read Before We Were Yours, definitely read it before this book, because this will help you to get the full picture of how this affected real people.

I loved Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. I was excited when I received an ARC from NetGalley and Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review. This book is a non-fiction account of adoptees who Georgia Tann placed. It is not a book delving into Georgia Tann; It is a book about the remarkable adoptees and their journies to find their past. It is also not a book to be read in one setting or even two settings.

Authors Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate interviewed adoptees who contacted them. Many gathered at a reunion to share their journeys. I cried, and I laughed with their stories. It was so interesting how each adoptee found themselves, set up relationships with relatives they found each in their own way.

I strongly recommend this thoughtful book.

Truth is better than fiction, and alas fiction is about to come true, and these wonderful authors share their experiences and lives with us.
Yes, I read “Before We Were Yours, along with a million other readers, and the feeling that book evoked are magnified here as we put names to the people that lives were forever changes. The evil perpetrated by Georgian Tann, and others all in the name of greed, and the shattered lives she left in her wake.
Now we know why the first book was written, the power it held to let people go forward with their lives. With some it has opened doors to lost family, with others a method of closure, and others a type of healing with others of similar experiences.
Is justice served? That is unanswered, the main instigator died years ago, and I believe she got what she deserved, but we know many more were involved, and they had to live with what they did no matter how they tried to justify their actions.
A great addition to the first book, and yes, fiction meets fact.

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Random House, and was not required to give a positive review.

I really enjoyed the book Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate and could not believe that it was based off of true events. After I finished I was quite curious about the families impacted by Georgia Tann but I never did any further research. When I was invited to read a pre-publication copy of Before and After I jumped at the chance! I was very excited to learn some of the stories of people that actually went through the Tennessee Children's Home Society. The story started off rather slowly and it took me some time to really get into it. I have to say though, I am typically a fiction reader and very rarely pick up non-fiction books because I just don't find them as exciting. However once we got into the stories of the Tann children it got easier to read. All of the experiences shared made me want to know even more and I plan to look online to see what else I can find on the TCHS. Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Author Lisa Wingate wrote a popular novel in 2017, Before We Were Yours, a fictionalized story about children adopted from the notorious Tennessee Children's Home Society ("TCHS"). Starting in the 1920s through 1950, a woman named Georgia Tann ran this "questionable" orphanage in Memphis. 

Tann grew rich off her scam operation by charging adoptive parents outlandish sums to adopt outside official channels; allowing babies to die from treatable illnesses rather than providing basic medical care; and deceiving birth parents in bad situations. The novel's popularity led to many TCHS adoptees contacting Wingate to share their stories.

Tann's black market operation ran fairly openly, offering those exorbitantly priced adoptions to desperate couples (often those too old to adopt through conventional channels). She obtained children through unscrupulous means -- pressuring parents, many of whom were poor, through lies, coercion, even kidnapping. Sometimes she didn't even have to do much, society took care of it for her: "A blend of what was happening in the world, from the Great Depression to World War II and the Holocaust, and including the stigma of unwed motherhood, led to the growth of Tann's network for obtaining and placing children."

Tann's empire at the Tennessee Children's Home Society... has been built with a combustible blend of desperate pregnant women, shattered children, vulnerable poverty-stricken families, eager adoptive parents, powerful politicians, ego, and greed."

"A woman named Connie became the first "Tann baby" to contact Wingate about organizing a reunion, an event that grew to include Wingate and another author, Judy Christie, collecting the adoptees' stories. "You create these fictional people, and you send them out into the world," Lisa tells a book group. "And the craziest thing is they come back home, tugging real people by the hand with them."

Wingate and Christie help organize events and record their histories, giving them control over their narratives and expounding on the conditions and circumstances that shaped their lives. Connie's drive to connect survivors gave "something important to those from whom Tann took so much: not just the chance to speak their stories out loud but proof that people are interested in hearing what they have to say, that strangers care about this long-ago miscarriage of justice."

Each adoptee's story is offset by a short intro or closer from the authors, describing their meeting or emotions around that story and its teller. Although they shaped the adoptees' stories well, I thought these inserts could've been stronger. They felt repetitive, were sometimes about the authors' themselves, and didn't contribute much to the overall knowledge or experience.

Some of the actual stories were big-time tearjerkers, others didn't go in-depth enough. It depends on what the person chose to tell and the authors' framing. It has a bit of an oral-history feel at times, which I always like. But it means that some context gets left out, in narratives that have enough gaps to begin with. The adoptees' feelings are complicated. Some understand why their parents gave them up and appreciate that Tann connected them to parents and families they love. Others were forcibly separated from parents without the means or resources to reclaim their children, hard as they may have tried. It's heartbreaking, and complicated.

The story that affected me most is tied to one of the ugliest aspect of Tann's business, the deaths of an estimated 500 children during the facility's three decades of operation. Sick babies were given little to no care, with no effort made to get medical attention for the sickest.

One of those was Lillian, whose adopted father heard her strange crying in a corner of the nursery as Tann tried to give them the sell on a healthy baby boy. He pushed past Tann despite her insistence not to bother and found a tongue-tied baby girl (I didn't even know that was a real thing) covered in a rash. They insisted on adopting her instead of a healthy baby, and the only problems she had were a cow's milk allergy causing the rash, and needing her tongue clipped. But Tann would've let her die and buried her in the backyard. Even just writing about it overwhelms me.

"I had been left in a corner crib, presumably to die because of my physical problems and unattractive appearance. My daddy's choice and my mother's sympathy most likely saved me from a backyard grave."

It is haunting. The authors describe returning as part of the group's reunion to the cemetery in Memphis where some of the children are buried and seeing the monument to those who didn't survive. It's a harrowing moment for Lillian, feeling how close she'd been to this fate. It's hard to know some of these stories, but there's also the wonder of the good people who rose to challenges, like Lillian's adoptive parents. Or when one woman, Patricia, reflects on her birth mother, "Thank you for having the courage to give me up. You may not have known that it was your finest moment, but it was."

The book intends only to tell the stories of the adopted children in their words, deservedly so. But Georgia Tann remains a looming, mysterious villain about whom we know little by the end. Her entire biography wasn't necessary, but who was she? How did the TCHS begin? Why wasn't it investigated earlier? 

There's next to no information about how all this happened. It's clear that was never the intention: this is about giving these people a voice in their own story, for celebrating the families who raised them and lives they lived, and not about dwelling on the misfortunes of the orphanage or Tann's actions.

But it's obvious Tann was in deep with politicians, businesses, government -- and there's no explanation of how she was able to perpetrate her scam, rake in massive amounts of money, and bury babies in her backyard for so long with no accountability. Lots of mysteries remain that I think affected these stories, even if the focus was on the adopted children themselves. There's no way you can read this and not be left curious about the mechanics of it all. 

But as it is, it's an admirable, moving testament of their lives and histories.

"Now the triumph belongs to quiet conquerors, who are ready to tell their stories. In a piece of history with so many villains, they are the heroes."

This book tells the true stories of several now-adult adoptees from Georgia Tann’s years at the Tennessee children’s Home Society. The “story behind the story,” it will pull at your heart.

What a perfect companion book to When We Were Yours! This book rounds out the very moving story told so eloquently. The ability to see and feel the affects that adoption can have on some people is invaluable.

I enjoyed Lisa Wingate's Before We Were Yours so much and was looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint. The stories were extremely well presented and moving.

Before and After by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate is a remarkable book. It is a must read for readers of Before We Were Yours.
It answers so many of the questions raised about the adopted children of Georgia Tann’s Tennessee Children’s Home Society. We get to hear their struggles and their triumphs.
It is an emotional and inspirational book. Before We Were Yours is a work of historical fiction, and Before and After is non-fiction. The stories in the book are told by the adoptees and by some of their children.
I highly recommend this book because it highlights the struggles of the adoptees and their strength to pursue their identities. Thank you to all the adoptees who shared their stories and made this book possible.
Thank you #Netgalley and #RandomHousePublishinghouse for approving my request for an ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.

Before and After: The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society is written by Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate. It is the companion novel, of sorts, to the fictional story Before We Were Yours. I do not feel you have to read Before We Were Yours to enjoy Before and After. Before We Were Yours, written by Lisa Wingate, brought to light Georgia Tann's hideous crimes. In the book, Before and After, we hear from the adoptees that were forever changed by the Tennessee Children's Home Society (TCHS), Georgia Tann and her many co-conspirators. These brave men and women graciously share their family’s stories of sadness, triumph, and reconnection in Before and After.

"How can you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been?"
Abraham Lincoln

I won't be sharing any of the personal stories in my review. I feel that the stories are the heart and soul of Before and After and should be experienced first-hand. However, I will share my thoughts and emotions. The emotions I experienced while reading this book ranged from sheer joy to deep sadness and were felt to the depths of my soul. I can't imagine the courage it took for these fifteen people and their families to share their stories with the world. Accounts that are so important to be told, so that this type of appalling treatment of innocent children and their families are never repeated. I applaud these two authors for sharing these incredibly heart-breaking stories in the most compassionate way possible. I could feel the connection; through their writing, these two women had with all the people they interviewed for this book. I can only imagine the tears that were shed while they spoke with these heroic people. I know I shed many tears while reading these heart-breaking stories, but there were also many smiles.

These horrible crimes began in 1924 and continue until 1950. How did five thousand children, many of whom were not orphans, arrive in the clutches of Georgia Tann? Why was this allowed to happen for almost thirty years? Why did no one speak up? And how did an estimated five hundred children succumb to the neglect that was rampant in TCHS? These are just some of the questions that Before and After conjured up in my mind.

Before and After recounts how Georgia Tann kidnapped babies and children from poor families and frightened unwed pregnant women, then sold them to and wealthy prominent families. Many of these families were respected powerful politicians and well-known celebrities. Other times Tann would tell these parents that their child had died during or soon after birth. These babies and children were then sold like commodities all over the United States. Tann was a devious woman and covered her crimes well. She would often falsify birth records to protect herself and her co-conspirators. This made it almost impossible for birth families to find each other later in life.

Georgia Tann built her empire on the misfortune, tears, and sorrow of the mothers and fathers from whom she stole these children. Her greed had no boundaries. In just the last ten years of her life, Tann profited over five hundred thousand dollars; This would be about between five and ten million in today's dollar.

Before and After is a story that is horrific in one sense and uplifting in another. This book speaks directly to what the human spirit can endure. A story that must be shared with the world, so something like this never happens again. I highly recommend this book.


** Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published**

*** I kindly received this galley by way of NetGalley/publisher/author. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. ***

Before and After
The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society

by Judy Christie; Lisa Wingate’s

Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine

Ballantine Books

History

Pub Date 22 Oct 2019


I am reviewing a copy of Before and After The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society through Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine Books and Netgalley:


In this book we read some of the Poignant True Stories of Victims of Georgia Tann’s adoption Scandal, some of them learning the truth from Lisa Wingate’s novel Before We Were Your’s and we’re reunited with their birth families.



Georgia Tann ran a Black Market Baby business out of The Tennessee Children’s Home in Memphis from the 1920’s to 1950’s. More than 5000 Orphans tailored to the wishlist of Eager parents. She hid the fact that many were not Orphans at all but they were in fact the stolen sons and daughters of desperate Mothers, poor families, and women in Maternity awards who were told their infant had died.


In June of 2017 Lisa Wingate’s book Before We Were Yours is brand new, Connie Wilson hadn’t yet heard of it, but when she learns of it she downloads it, devouring it in only a weekend. On September.11. 1950 a criminal Investigation into Georgia Tann begins only two months after Connie’s birth. Orphanage funds were cut, and the babies still left in the Orphanage were stuck in Limbo. Having read Lisa Wingate’s book Connie decided to send her a message, telling her of her idea to have a reunion of the victims who are still living, as well as an invitation for Lisa Wingate to do a book signing.


The possibility of a reunion and the schedules shuffle but the story continues, but TCHS adoptees and their families show up through Late Fall, Winter and Spring often carrying with them yellowing letters and documents from old fire folders and sales pitches that Georgia Tann has put together for these children as if they were goods and not children.



Before and After includes moving and sometimes shocking accounts of the ways in which adoptees were separated from their first families. Often raised as only children, many have joyfully reunited with siblings in the final decades of their lives.



If you are looking for a book that deals with the Aftermath of Georgia Tann and the damage she did, I would highly recommend Before and After.



This book is worthy of five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

True stories from people who were victims of Tennessee Children’s Home Society, Georgia Tann.

3☆

I read and loved “Before We Were Yours” and was anxious to read “Before and After” when I heard about it. It is definitely a follow up to “Before We Were Yours” as it explains what happened once the novel was published; the people who came forward who had direct ties to the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, the reunion that was planned, the relationships that were reconnected, and the answers that were finally found. It truly is amazing to read all that was uncovered, discovered, and shared - it is a captivating topic, and as achingly shocking and sad as the stories told are, it is wonderful that a novel helped pave the path for survivors and their families to unite, share their past and stories, and form new relationships with others who also went through the same horrible times.

This follow-up book is great for fans of Lisa Wingate's previous book "Before We Were Yours". This is however a non-fiction account of families who have similar experiences that were addressed in the author's earlier book - surrounding adoptions facilitated by Georgia Tann as a part of the Tennessee Children's Home Society (TCHS). It centers on a group of (now adult) people who are gathering together for a reunion - to gather and tell their stories. Heartbreaking accounts of children stolen from their families, deception and corruption occurring in these adoptions breaks my heart. Having read the previous book I had hoped that the accounts were purely fictional, and as such possibly somewhat sensationalized. But after reading the retellings of real people's experiences I see that though Wingate's previous book was fiction, it was absolutely based in the true stories that took place in the TCHS.

As I read I asked myself if I had been placed for adoption through this situation would I want to search out the truth? How would I have reacted to finding a whole other family history that I had carried with me in my genetic makeup....? It made me really think about what makes us who we are? Is it the genetic makeup we come to earth with or the environment we are raised in?

I did enjoy reading the accounts of finding these people who had previously been adopted, and I'm grateful for them to have these experiences to link them to others like them. Finding a common bond, and to connect through hard experiences is a gift. The #1 thing I took away from this book is the importance of recording our own stories - whatever they are.

"This is the message Lisa emphasized throughout the weekend. "The saddest thing is when our stories die with us." she says. "People so often say to me, 'I wish we'd written the family stories down.'"

I will say, I enjoyed the story-telling aspect of the fictional accounts a little better....but in taking this in as a non-fiction account, I still enjoyed reading it.

I read Before We Were Yours earlier this year and I loved it. When I found out this was coming out this year I knew I had to read it! There are real pictures and documents in this book that really added to the story. Tann profited from the TCHS today’s equivalent of 5 to 10 million dollars and she was never prosecuted. That makes me so angry, she never paid the money back, never admitted what she did, never faced the families of lives she forever changed. I am infuriated that documents and paperwork related to the TCHS and adoptions were sealed. The adoptees has to go through hoops to get their documents. Insane fees and long waits just to find out what they really are.

Janie’s and Stanley’s stories broke my heart. Janie’s parents adopted her, then divorced, then her mom passed, then her dad passed and then she went to live with her step mother. Stanley’s mom was told her baby died overnight and he continues to search for his brother that he believes never passed. He never stops searching. Can you imagine bouncing from house to house? How about searching for your brother for your whole life?

If you enjoyed Before We Were Yours or want to know more about TCHS and Georgia Tann do yourself a favor and pick this book up today! I can’t sing it’s praises enough.

I love reading different reads from my normal romance genre that I typically gravitate toward. This was very well done and I would recommend it.