Hi... All I know is this. The records are with DCFS in Nashville, if they are still there. Alot of the kids in the orphanage had parents that lived nearby. They couldn't take care of them is all and were in the orphanage to be taken care of until the parents could take care of them. Look in the census of Davidson County and find people with the same last name, then go earlier to see if the child was with the parents. If there were siblings in the orphanage with them, they are listed together. Check that way first. I am not familiar with the 1900 census with the orphanage. I do know for a fact that many of the kids had parents, and they were not adopted officially by other people. They were sometimes during those days called, 'contracted out' as slaves to do house work etc. The kids kept their original last names. I hope this helps. This information is from my gma and my great aunt. They were both in orphanages and my great uncles lived with others and it was said they were 'adopted' when they weren't really. Just no one could take care of them at that time. My grandfather was contracted out instead of going to the orphanage and made into a jockey and a certain percentage of his winnings of races went to his father. So, I know it happened. The kids real last name is on the census at the orphanage. The other route you might take is, if you knew when she became an orphan and check the court records. It may tell you who took her to care for her. They didn't just adopt them in one day. It took a while.