HI:

I did some checking around for you and I could not find George's original birth certificate (if, in fact, he was born in Jim Wells). What is odd is that I could not find a birth record on him as George Parra or George Perez anywhere in Texas during 1930. Very odd! There has to be one for him somewhere and we've somehow got the names messed up.

It sounds to me like he went into foster care and was adopted by the second family. To know for sure what happened you'd have to look at the guardianship records in the probate court in the county where George was parceled out to the first family...assuming that was originally where he was from. These records may actually be where the 2nd family of Perez was living when George came to live with them. I know this sounds confusing, but by law the state of Texas was responsible for overseeing the care of a minor and many legal documents would have been created in his case. Given that all this happened over time and George was not a baby and he finally stayed with the second family I don't think this would be a closed adoption. That means -- typically -- that the records are open....if we could just determine the correct location in TX to look him up. I wish there was a way to look up just George on 12/30/1930 but there isn't....you have to look at the whole year and pick him out and there were a gazillion Georges born that year. I did try looking for just George in Jim Wells for the whole of 1930 with no luck.

My best guess is George's birth information is out there but we don't have the right last name to look him up (this would be consistent with an open adoption). Any ideas?