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Long scattered, adoptees search for lost family

This Monday, June 16, 2014 photo shows Diane Conrad, left to right, Cyndy Stapleton, Bill Palmisano, and Melinda Elkins Dawson posing for a portrait in North Canton, Ohio. A northern Georgia doctor running off-the-books adoptions in the 1950s and ’60s placed infants with out-of-state parents who paid hundreds of dollars and were listed on records as the children’s real parents. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
This Monday, June 16, 2014 photo shows Diane Conrad, left to right, Cyndy Stapleton, Bill Palmisano, and Melinda Elkins Dawson posing for a portrait in North Canton, Ohio. A northern Georgia doctor running off-the-books adoptions in the 1950s and ’60s placed infants with out-of-state parents who paid hundreds of dollars and were listed on records as the children’s real parents. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) This Monday, June 16, 2014 photo shows Diane Conrad, left to right, Cyndy Stapleton, Bill Palmisano, and Melinda Elkins Dawson posing for a portrait in North Canton, Ohio. A northern Georgia doctor running off-the-books adoptions in the 1950s and ’60s placed infants with out-of-state parents who paid hundreds of dollars and were listed on records as the children’s real parents. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

By Associated Press 1 min read

MCCAYSVILLE, Ga. (AP) – A northern Georgia doctor running off-the-books adoptions in the 1950s and ’60s placed infants with out-of-state parents who were listed on records as the children’s real parents. Now some of those adoptees are doing fresh DNA testing in hopes of identifying biological relatives.

There’s unsettled debate about whether Dr. Thomas Hicks sold black-market babies, charitably facilitated adoptions for desperate parents or perhaps did both at his clinic in rural McCaysville.

A company will conduct free DNA swabs Saturday at a motel in nearby Ducktown, Tennessee. Some adoptees are giving samples and hope potential relatives participate, too.

Melinda Elkins Dawson, an adoptee from northeast Ohio, says time for potential reunions is running out because some adoptees are in their 60s and their parents may not be around much longer.